Hugo van Wadenoyen

Hugo van Wadenoyen (b.1892 - d. 1 Mar 1959 (Cheltenham) was a British photographer, of Dutch origins. He lived in Cheltenham England, and was an influential figure in the long drawn-out genesis of British fine art photography, especially in the 1945-1965 years when photography was not considered to be an art form.

van Wadenoyen led the "Combined Societies"; a progressive group of local photographic societies (Hereford, Wolverhampton, and Bristol) that, in 1945, 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.