Brightly coloured speedos. Factor two sun cream. Lounging with a cocktail and cigarette by a chlorinated pool while the kids learn archery. This astonishing archive of nostalgic images of British tourists abroad were taken during the heyday of the package holiday.
Trevor Clark was the first British photographer to document the new hotels rising in Mallorca and in so doing he captured the camp and joyful atmosphere of a bygone world of holidaymakers making the most of cheap charter flights, Mediterranean sun and all-you-can-eat buffets. His son, Jake Clark, has compiled a book entiled The Package Holiday using some of Trevor’s great photographs.
The late Trevor Clark began his photographic career as an assistant in a London studio. After National Service with the Royal Air Force and working on cruise ships as a promotional photographer, he returned to London and, in his own words "...eased into the world of advertising and fashion photography..."
As his studio was in Soho, the centre of the burgeoning pop music industry in the 60s, he photographed all of the up and coming rock and pop stars of the day for magazines and promotional material. In 1968, Clark relocated to Mallorca. Several of Trevor's images have been selected and displayed by London's National Portrait Gallery.
Jake Clark is an artist and lecturer at UAL who was brought up in Mallorca and Cornwall. His paintings are exhibited regularly in solo and group shows.
The Package Holiday 1968-1985 Compiled by Jake Clark with Photography by Trevor Clark is published by Hoxton Mini Press.
3 comments
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How sweet. And idlyllic. Oddly, not even one of the denigrating photos used in context to other nationalities, even when the topic has nothing to do with the denigrating photo. Ok, maybe not so odd. It's tabloid media after all.
I think Trevor's real story is the early days of pop and fashion when he was right amongst it. I remember stories back in the 80's I think, in this paper of people he met and photographed. Far more interesting than photos of brits on holiday, many looking like lobsters , photos thousands of us have in old family albums
Happy Days!