Hugo van Wadenoyen (July 18, 1892 in
Vlaardingen, Netherlands – March 1, 1959 in Cheltenham) was a British photographer, of
Dutch origins.[1][2] He lived in
Cheltenham, England, and was an influential figure in the long drawn-out genesis of British
fine art photography, especially between 1945 and 1965.[3]
Biography
Van Wadenoyen moved from the Netherlands to
Cardiff, Wales in 1900, where his father would start a photographic studio.[3]
Photography
He became a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1919 at age twenty-six and in his early years took photographs in a
Pictorialist style.[3][4] In 1945, Van Wadenoyen led the "Combined Societies," a progressive group of local photographic societies (Hereford, Wolverhampton, and Bristol) that broke away from the moribund
Royal Photographic Society.
He undertook a series of instructional books on photography, published by the Focal Press.
Van Wadenoyen's book Wayside Snapshots (Focal Press, 1947) marked a decisive British break with
Pictorialism in photography, was a brave early attempt to use the book format as a means of showing a photographer's personal pictures. Some of the book's fresh approaches to landscape strongly influenced
Raymond Moore. Van Wadenoyen was also a mentor to
Roger Mayne, involving Mayne in the Combined Societies group exhibitions between 1951 and 1955.
Works
Instructional books on photography published by Focal Press (circa 1940s), edited by
Andor Kraszna-Krausz