Lot Essay
Wendt was born in Ceylon in 1900. He was confronted with photography from an early age as his father Henry Lorenz Wendt, a Supreme Court judge and Legislative Councillor, was a founding member of the Amateur Photographic Society of Ceylon in 1906. His grandfather was one of the Society's first presidents and taught Wendt the fundamentals of photography in his studio. It wasn't until the 1930s that Wendt returned to photography after having been deeply involved with music and modern art and by 1933 he was developing and printing his own work. In 1935 he co-founded the Photographic Society of Ceylon 'for the advancement of the art and practice of photography amongst amateurs of the Island'. He exhibited in the Society's exhibitions from 1935-44 (excluding 1943) and in all the principal cities of Europe, America, South Africa and Asia. His stylistic range was extremely varied extending from landscape, daily life, architecture, studio portraits, nudes and still-life; from straight photography to pictorialism to surrealism. His interest in solarisation began when he saw a portrait by Man Ray in 1932.