John Hinde

However, he soon returned to photography and, in 1956, he left the circus and founded John Hinde Ltd. In Dublin to produce and distribute his colour pictures of Ireland. Hinde's most famous work is that of the Butlin's holiday camps, in which he portrayed a welcoming and jubilant environment. In 1972, he sold his company to pursue his love of painting. The Irish Museum of Modern Art recognised his work with a retrospective in Dublin in 1993. In 1997, Hinde died in Dordogne, France.

• Name — John Hinde • Birth Name — John Wilfrid Hinde • Born — 17 May 1916 • Birthplace — Street, Somerset, England • Died — 26 December 1997 • Place of death — Brive-la-Gaillarde, Dordogne, France • Occupation — Photographer • Known for — Photos of Butlin's holiday camps • Children — 5

John Wilfrid Hinde was born in Street, Somerset on 17 May 1916, in a close-knit Quaker community. He stuck to his Quaker values during the war by becoming a photographer for the civil defence forces instead of a soldier. Some of his photography was published in colour magazines and books, such as Of Cabbages and Kings, Citizens of War, and British Circus Life. His interest in photography would lead him to become an important pioneer in colour photographs.

Hinde briefly switched professions when he became a circus publicity manager in 1944. Here, he met his wife Antonia "Jutta" Falnoga, a trapeze artist for the circus; they married in 1952 and had five children, three sons and two daughters. In 1954, he and Antonia started their own travelling circus company in Ireland named "The John Hinde Show." This venture quickly failed however and Hinde quit the circus business in 1956. He returned to his life as a photographer, and that same year, he founded John Hinde Ltd in Dublin.

From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Hinde worked on his most widely known production: the Butlin Holiday Camps postcards. Billy Butlin had founded the camps as a place for working-class people to go for vacation, complete with high excitement and low cost. Butlin hired Hinde to produce postcards that reflected the spirited and enjoyable environment found at his camps. By this time, Hinde worked more as an art director than an actual photographer, so he hired two German photographers, Elmar Ludwig and Edmund Nägele, and a British photographer, David Noble. They travelled to the different camps and set up the necessary lights and photography equipment, often taking a whole day to make them just right. Hinde's pictures portrayed holiday makers taking advantage of all of the things Butlin's had to offer, having a grand old time in the process. The photographers used large format cameras and Ektachrome film to capture the optimistic tone that Butlin was looking for. Scenes from the postcards included people eating in lavishly decorated dining halls, large indoor swimming pools, themed bars, and amusement park rides. Actual holiday makers were used in the shots, but like the Ireland pictures, the sets were often added to, to capture the energetic feeling of the setting. Hinde would often enhance certain colours later on so that the result would be a lively, idealistic view of a Butlin vacation. The combination of the images of a fun-filled family vacation and the vivacious colour produced a nostalgic portrait for the masses.

• http: www.recirca.com/reviews/johnhinde/johnhinde.shtml "Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight: The John Hinde Butlin Photographs", Sarah Browne • "The Gallery Of Photography Dublin- Presents The John Hinde Butlin's Photographs" • http: www.wesseloconnor.com/exhibits/hinde/index.php "John Hinde: The Butlin's Holiday Camp Photos" • http: www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?id=24,138,0,0,1,0 "Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight: The John Hinde Butlin's Photographs" • http: www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/culture/2003/01/openeye_butlins/Butlins.shtml "Butlins Delight at the Open Eye", BBC • https: abadie.co.uk/johnhindebook.html (the only book of classic John Hinde postcards with the senders messages transcribed) • Tribune Magazine, Hinde sight, the people in the postcards of a lost Ireland, 25 May 2008, pp10–12. • "Hindesight" is a 40 minute arts documentary made for RTE-TV (Rep.of Ireland) by Joe Lee to mark the return visit to Ireland of John Hinde and his wife Jutta for the opening of a retrospective exhibition of the photographic and postcard work by John Hinde and his photographic team at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin) during the summer of 1993. https: www.nagelestock.net/hindesight