Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight: The John Hinde Butlin’s Photographs

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, postcard entrepreneur John Hinde produced a series of images of Butlin's popular holiday camps throughout the British Isles. With his trademark use of bright colors and elaborate staging, each photograph featured a large cast of real holidaymakers. These narrative tableaux of Butlin's quiet lounges, ballrooms and bars were rescued from obscurity by dedicated Hinde fan Martin Parr (who introduces the book). Both grand and humble, they are now regarded as some of the strongest images of their era.

John Hinde (1916-1998) was an important pioneer of color photography in Britain. Author of several early color photography books, he was diverted into circus management before founding the traveling John Hinde Show. It failed, and he returned to photography in 1955, conceiving a new kind of postcard--brighter and better than anything produced before. He became the most successful postcard publisher in the world, although critical acclaim only began in 1993 with a retrospective exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Hinde's Butlin's photographs have now been exhibited throughout Europe and America.