Lionel George Henricus Wendt (1900-1944) pianist, photographer, filmmaker and critic from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), he was the leader of '43 Group, a collective of Sri Lankan artists.

'Lionel Wendt's Ceylon is typical of his photographic style-pictorialist-modernist in the English mode-and illustrates a clash of two cultures, with Wendt looking at his own culture almost like an outsider Ostensibly a book of personal travel photographs, the usual tropes of the genre are here-lush landscapes, architectural and people studies-all heavily idealised. But there are also a fair number of nude studies, of both males and females These are typically pictorialist in style, with some Surrealist photomontages thrown in to show that Wendt was thoroughly up-to-date.' Parr&Badger II, 98.

First edition; 4to (280 x 210 mm); illustrated with 120 titled photogravures by Wendt, with tissue-guards, a few very faint spots to preliminary pages, else very good; late 20th century quarter maroon morocco over cloth, marbled endpapers, fine.