Our True Intent is All for Your Delight: The John Hinde Butlin’s Photographs (Martin Parr)

“The history of photography is fickle. Looking back at these images now, they seem to me to be some of the strongest images of Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. While Hinde s imagery has slipped into the national consciousness of the British and Irish, no history of photography has yet acknowledged their influence or importance. The documentary photographs that represent Britain from this period are black and white, romantic, whimsical and often pictorial. The photographers who made the Butlin s photographs all went on to pursue successful commercial photography careers and may not themselves be aware of the significance of their work.

Bringing these Butlin s images to a new audience is a mission. The impact they had on me in 1971 was intense and they have haunted me ever since. Each image offers everything a good photo should: entertainment, fascinating observation, social history, a big idea. They appear casually taken, yet we know difficult they were to stage, and, as with all Hinde imagery, they show an idealised view of the world. They are a record of a lost dream. The most remarkable thing of all is that the cards were painstakingly produced not for any of these aspirational ideas or as great art, but as a humble postcard to sell for a few pence to holidaymakers.” – Martin Parr