squareshapes&roundholes.

[squareshapes ♥'s.002]

i've been meaning to post  a blog about john hinde's photography for some time. in fact, ever since i started squareshapes. in a way, john hinde is the reason squareshapes&roundholes actually exists. i wanted, in some way, to celebrate the aesthetic of the mundane, the banal and the extraordinary ordinary. in glorious vibrancy. that's why you see so many posts of 70s cookbook photography here. it's a hearty salute to the perhaps misguided and even laughable attempt to elevate the humble prawn cocktail, for instance, to a new and exotic height. it's about making the boring become sexy. and about the essence of idealism. i think... john hinde's world looks and feels this way for me anyhow...

rain whipped and ruddy southern ireland is transformed into a luscious land of super green fields and flame haired children. a romantic landscape. the cornish coast becomes sun seared st tropez and butlins holiday camps are places with all the charm and appeal of disneyland in its prime... john hinde's photo language is full of colour in caps lock, often heavily post produced and tweaked, regularly edited and set up. hyper real and super staged. his work, in this way, sits closely with soviet and nazi propaganda and it's with this sinister relationship in mind, as much as any vintage or kitsch appeal, that i find his work so interesting and enjoyable to look at.

our true intent is all for your delight is a collection of butlins photographs taken by hinde protégés elmar ludwig, edmund nagele and david noble who were sent to capture the fun, relaxation and good time appeal of billy butlins' pleasure concentration camps (holiday makers were locked in after dark). plate by plate, we see the carefully compositioned scenes of people enjoying a drink in tiki bars, hanging out in snooker halls and lounging around in reception areas. by all accounts the photographers would spend hours setting up for each shot, encouraging the less pleasant on the eye to move out of frame (this isn't obvious) and waiting for the perfect conditions to shoot. what we get is a collection of the most fantastically dressed british pleasure seekers enjoying pints of beer, eating artificially coloured meals and, well, looking generally unimpressed with everything around them! another interesting theme throughout the photographs is the subtle acknowledgment of the subject to the camera - often, in the background, a disobedient fellow will gaze upon the viewer and give the whole game away. 

this is a fascinating study of john hinde's aesthetic and its interpretation from his disciples. there is also a very good foreword from the king of banal photography martin parr, who himself spent a couple of seasons working under hinde and who no doubt shaped his own approach to capturing the world through capturing its boredom in british ballrooms in weather beaten "fun parks"...