Original prints that captured the stars at play

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Original celebrity photographs from the Fifties and Sixties will go on sale next week at a display of prints from the Camera Press archives.

Pictures immortalising Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery, Steve McQueen, Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland will be on sale at the Tom Blau Gallery from 22 November for £300 upwards.

Camera Press photographers including Sam Levin and Horst Tappe led the casual style embodied by Paparazzo in Fellini's 1960 movie La Dolce Vita. The prints, published worldwide, were in archives for decades, many not seen again until this exhibition. Some still bear the notes of journalists and picture editors. A 1956 shot of Zsa Zsa Gabor showing her legs has the rather dated aside: "Though Zsa Zsa's bosoms are frequently seen in her low-cut evening gowns, not many wolves are aware that she also has beautiful legs".

Gallery print manager Pippa Oldfield said: "These are artefacts, not just images, because they are one-off prints. Many seem almost naive compared to celebrity photos from today. There is one of Marilyn Monroe pulling up her stockings - it's a really candid picture, and shows the trust between her and the photographer."

The paparazzi phenomenon began in Rome in 1958 where film stars and aristocrats congregated. Local photographers found editors and the public hungry for images of the stars at play rather than studio hand-outs.

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