About Lu Heng
Lu Heng
The world is not a finished idea.
The world does not have to be explained before it deserves to be seen. I write down my judgements, and I photograph the moments that no single judgement can sum up. People, cities, mountains and seas, and the unnamed moments of everyday life: this is how I live with the world.
The road
I went to the Netherlands on my own while I was still at school, then on to university, where I started a business in my first year.
“I started my business at a very young age, selling game cards and providing connectivity to people.”
In practice
I am Lu Heng. I left for the Netherlands on my own while I was still in high school. In my first year at university, I started a company; since then I have travelled the world alone. I founded LARUS in 2016, and working with Internet addresses and network infrastructure keeps bringing me back to one question: why should the people who build and pay for a network have to entrust its future to a registry?
“We want the internet to be free, to belong to the people who use it.”
Writing
“Reality does not need to be invented. It only needs to be described.”
My Notes follow that question through real disputes, institutional choices and proposals for change. They are where I make the argument. The photographs are where you can meet the person looking at the same world from another distance. Start with whichever question brings you here; if the way I see it matters to you, follow the work as it develops.
Photography
For twenty years I have travelled the world on my own and taken these photographs. Each belongs to a place, a moment and a story, and holds something of how it felt.
A dated record
- 2008–2012Studies International Economics and Business at the University of Groningen. Source
- 2016Founds LARUS Limited in Hong Kong.
- 2018LARUS Foundation is established in Hong Kong.
- 2023Stands for election to the APNIC Executive Council. Source
- 2024Talks to BTW Media about decentralising IP addresses. Source
- 2025Begins publishing his Notes on heng.lu.
- 2026Opens the photography exhibition Before We Explain the World on heng.lu.
“I’m just an internet nerd and advocate for what I believe would be better for humanity.”