John Hinde (photographer)

His postcards have inspired many other photographers, including JJ Waller in his 2020 book, JJ Waller's Sussex by the Sea: 'I have long been a fan of John Hinde, who like me before becoming a photographer worked in the world of circus and entertainment....His cards had a very recognisable style, vivid garish colours, with everything and everyone perfectly positioned in the frame. Following the doom and gloom of World War Two, Hinde's postcards depicted a colourful optimistic Britain....This book gives a special nod to Hinde and generations of other seaside photographers."

Even though Hinde never viewed his photographs with much reverence, the Irish Museum of Modern Art recognised his photographic works with a retrospective in Dublin in 1993. Since his death in 1997, exhibits of his photography have travelled all over the world and he proved to be the most successful postcard producer in the world. His works have also been compiled into books, including Hindesight, a collection of the Ireland postcards and Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight, a collection of the Butlin's postcards.

Hinde's postcards were immensely popular, despite Hinde's view that the photographs held no artistic value. In 1972, he decided to sell his company to the Waterford Glass Group to pursue his love of landscape painting.

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 one 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 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.

His interest in colour photography arose during the 1940s. From the later half of the 1940s to the middle half of the 1950s, he entered the circus life, where he met his future wife. 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. At the time of his death, millions of his postcards had been sold worldwide.

John Wilfrid Hinde (17 May 1916 – 26 December 1997) was an English photographer, whose idealistic and nostalgic style influenced the art of postcard photography and was widely known for his meticulously planned shoots.

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.