Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight
dal 5/12/2003 al 31/1/2004
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5/12/2003
Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight
Gallery of Photography, Dublin
The John Hinde Butlin's photographs are a glorious moment in the story of photography. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the John Hinde Studio, based in Dublin, produced a series of postcards to be sold at Butlin's holiday camps throughout the British Isles. Famous for their 'hi-de-hi' catchphrase (taken from the Cab Calloway song), redcoat hosts, and bargain packages with all entertainment included, this was Butlin's heyday.
The John Hinde Butlin's Photograph
The John Hinde Butlin's photographs are a glorious moment in the story of
photography. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the John Hinde Studio, based
in Dublin, produced a series of postcards to be sold at Butlin's holiday
camps throughout the British Isles. Famous for their 'hi-de-hi' catchphrase
(taken from the Cab Calloway song), redcoat hosts, and bargain packages with
all entertainment included, this was Butlin's heyday. Anticipating the later
success of Disney and other holiday theme parks, Butlins attracted over a
million visitors for a week's holiday each year from the 1950s through the
1970s.
With innovative use of colour and elaborate staging (the trademarks of a
John Hinde postcard), it was the challenging job of two German (Elmar Ludwig
and Edmund Nägele) and one British photographer (David Noble) to execute the
photographs to Hinde's rigorous formula and standards. Each photograph is
elaborately stage managed, with often large casts of real holidaymakers
acting their allocated roles in these narrative tableaux of the Butlin's
quiet lounges, ballrooms and Beachcomber bars. Shot with large format
cameras, and lit like a film set, the production of these photographs was
an extraordinary undertaking. The images helped John Hinde become one of the
most successful postcard publishers in the world.
Most of the John Hinde Butlin's photographs have only ever been published as
postcards. The book and exhibition photographs are reproduced from the
original large format Ektachromes. They prove to be some of the strongest
images of their era.
"As with all Hinde imagery, they show an idealised view of the world and,
after the passage of time, acquire the power of a lost dream. The most
remarkable thing of all is that the cards were painstakingly produced not
for any aspirational ideas or as great art, but as humble postcards to sell
for a few pence to holidaymakers."
- Martin Parr, from his Introduction
JOHN HINDE was an important pioneer of colour photography,
since the Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin exhibition in 1993, is becoming
recognised as a significant figure in the social history of photography. His
career began in the early 40s in London as a photographer and
photo-enthusiast, absorbed by the new technology of colour photography and
among the first to be published in colour, in early colour magazines and in
essays made for the illustrated books 'Of Cabbages and Kings', 'Citizens in
War', and 'British Circus Life'. While on assignment for the latter, he
decided to join Chipperfields' Circus as its manager. While on tour with
Chipperfields, he met his wife, the trapeze artist Jutta. He decided to
start his own circus in Ireland: bought a circus tent, hired performers and
began to tour. The venture was a disastrous failure.
Without losing his entrepreneurial spirit, he returned to photography having
identified a gap in the market for colour, rather than monochrome, postcards
of Ireland. He began on his own, issuing his first 6 postcards in 1957,
before recruiting a team of photographers, mainly from Germany (because of
German photographers' high technical standards). He became one of the most
successful postcard publishers in the world. John Hinde died in 1998, in
retirement in the Dordogne, having sold the postcard publishing company in
1972. His archives are part of the Royal Photographic Society collection
housed at the National Museum of Photography, Bradford.
Gallery talk:
Curator/photographer Martin Parr and producer Chris Boot will discuss the
story of the John Hinde Butlin's photographs and their legacy.
Date: 5.15pm on Tuesday 9th December 2003. Booking is essential
Curated by Martin Parr. Produced by Chris Boot. In Association with Les
Rencontres d'Arles
Accompanying Book:
OUR TRUE INTENT IS ALL FOR YOUR DELIGHT
The John Hinde Butlin's Photographs
Introduced by Martin Parr. Published in UK/Europe by Chris Boot May 2003
ISBN 0-9542813-0-6 Price 39.95 euros. Photographs © John Hinde
Gallery of Photography
Meeting House Square
Temple Bar
Dublin 2 Ireland
Tel. +353-1 6714654
Fax. +353-1 6709293