John Hinde Postcards

I think I would have got on quite well with the photographer, John Hinde if he were around today. I can easily imagine us wistfully chatting over a glass of Watney’s Pale Ale in the Tropico bar at Skegness Butlins. John would perhaps be framing the environs with his fingers in the way that directors and photographers never do and I’m not quite sure what I’d be doing… Probably trying to steal a roll of film from his Billingham bag.

I recognised John’s trademark acid hues in his work long before I knew it was actually him.  I own a few of his travel postcards and they’re pretty special things to behold in that they don’t just represent a nostalgic image of the place or event, they were often purchased in that place as a memento of the good (or bad) time that someone was having there. I love the way that stories are anchored into his work and more often than not they are rose-tinted perceptions of the reality.

John’s later career saw him taking on the role as an art-director (especially on his Butlins work) and often he utilised the the talents of other photographers to execute the grunt work on his projects. Even so, his pure vision and enchanting ability to capture the very human quality of experiencing glee and liberation in being somewhere else but at home was omnipresent in all that he did. My favourite postcards are of the Caribbean islands in the 1960′s for they depict privileged holiday-makers mucking around in stereotypical colonial surroundings and the contrasting colours of the sub-tropical scenery clash together splendidly. The essence of the old-school of travel and the clipped wings of the British Empire is everywhere in these pictures.

There is a superb online resource for anyone wishing to see some more of John’s work. That said, large wads of his postcards can still be obtained on Ebay for a song if you’re willing to trawl through them all. It’s worth it.