John Hinde’s vibrant postcards

John Hinde was born in Somerset in 1916 and by the 1940s had developed an interest in colour photography. Due to his Quaker beliefs he worked as a civil defence photographer during the war, and had several works published.

After the war he joined a circus. On his travels around Ireland he noticed that the view postcards on offer were all monochrome sepia or black and white. In fact there had been a lack of coloured topographical postcards since the First World War. German printed colour postcards had dominated the pre-war market but such was anti-german sentiment that after the war they were unsaleable. Postcard sales also declined dramatically in the 1920s, decimating the number of publishers and driving the remainder towards cheaper production methods.

Hinde left the circus and founded his postcard business in Dublin in 1956, coinciding with a tourist boom in Ireland, a gap in supply left by Mason’s departure from the trade and more affordable colour printing.

Competitors like Kinneilly and Eason stuck with the black and white mechanically produced real photo postcards of towns and villages, but Hinde homed in on stereotypical Irish tourist themes, like donkey carts, and hit the jackpot. This led to him being hired by Billy Butlin, who had a camp at Mosney, to produce postcards for all the Butlin’s camps.

To cope with the work Elmar Ludwig, David Noble and Edmund Nagele were employed as photographers. The cards feature real holidaymakers and staff, and are printed in vivid saturated colours to convey the excitement of a Butlin’s holiday. Hotels too were eager customers for his stage-managed postcards selling the dream of a perfect stay.

Hinde didn’t stop with the British Isles and his postcards for overseas locations equally capture 1960s fashion, spirit and architecture. The John Hinde legacy lives on properly appreciated in books, exhibitions and documentaries.