Winner of the 2008 BMW Paris Photo Prize for contemporary Photography, Yao Lu is currently a professor of the School of Design at The Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

After finishing his Masters degree of Visual Arts (Photography) at the Queensland College of Arts, Griffith University, Australia he began exhibiting his work around numerous art galleries and events across the world. He was shortlisted for the 2009 Prix Pictet with the project entitled New Mountain and Water which dealing with environmental issues in China through a series of strikingly beautiful images.

Yao Lu has exhibited his work at the Daegu Photo Biennale in Korea, at the Modern Mode of Chinese Contemporary Art, the Lianzhou International Photo Festival and at numerous other galleries and events in China, as well as at the 2008 Fotofestival in Poland and at the Brussels Meeting Centre in Belgium.

He is also a Member of Art Committee of Chinese Photographer Association as well as of China Printmaking Association.