John Hinde Postcards Of Ireland (1950s - 1980s)

John Hinde (1916-1997) was an English photographer who set up shop in Ireland in the 1950s, after a stint in the circus. Hinde produced postcards of the Irish landscape and city streets. He favoured a lurid style often with posed, explicitly nostalgic subject matters. His postcards became immensely popular with tourists and locals alike and are fondly recalled to this day. In Britain, Hinde is best remembered for producing postcards of Butlins but his company produced postcards from all over these islands. Although Hinde sold his company in 1972 it continued to produce postcards into the 1980s, most of which were in his very particular house style.

I've posted two samples from the Hinde postcard collection. The first one is to my mind atypical of Hinde, featuring an almost futuristic nightscape of Dublin with the ghostly trails of traffic and the illuminated advertising for Club Orange, Texaco etc. It's a beautiful postcard and one I'm trying to find a physical copy of. The second is much more typical of the style Hinde became famous for. It's a presumably posed, kitsch and colourful representation of the Irish landscape featuring an archetyal buachaill and cailín rua as well as a trusty donkey, carrying turf from the bog. More of Hinde's Irish postcard collection can be viewed here.