A rolling Photographic Exhibition by Larry Ellis is taking place in the Cameron Tearooms at Dimbola Museum and Galleries.

Very much up close and personal with many of the stars of the period, now you to can get up close and personal with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and many more at Larry’s exhibition ‘Tea With The Stars’ at Dimbola. The exhibition is free as long as you enjoy a cup of tea.

With Beatle-mania and the Swinging Sixties scene in London about to explode, 1963 was a very good time for Press Photographer Larry Ellis to be joining the ranks of the Fleet Street ‘snapper’.

Perhaps one of the less celebrated Fleet Street celebrity snappers of the era, his work captures perfectly a period when stars and those capturing them on film mixed freely and easily and where there was mutual trust and respect. Needless to say, a far cry from today’s celebrity obsessed media where invasion of privacy appears to be routine or the depiction of our celebrities at work, rest and play is heavily stage managed.

Larry, now retired lives on the Isle of Wight and can talk the hind legs off of a donkey. In fairness to the Donkey Sanctuary we will keep his location under wraps – his favourite phrase is “to cut a long story short…” he never does but we still love him and of course his photography.

He performed a dual role for the Express Newspaper group whereby he’d shoot celebrities for the Daily Express during the week and would then switch to sports coverage over the weekend for the Sunday Express – predominantly football, rugby, golf and cricket.

Larry’s career has not always been in the company of stars, politicians and royals, there were encounters with famous people from a very different walk of life. He attended the same school as the Kray Twins and recounts he never dreamed that in his chosen career he would be photographing them, and as often in that was mistakenly viewed as being one of their associates!

As a photographer he is still in demand and when duty calls from the various news agencies he is off like a shot to get those all important images. Currently working on his library of photographic material he is a major contributor of Getty Images and founder member of the online www.thepressphotographersgallery.com.