Originals of iconic David Bowie photos tracked down by Berkhamsted photographer

A photographer from Berkhamsted was excited to see the original transparencies of his iconic David Bowie shoot for the Space Oddity Record sleeve.

Vernon Dewhurst, from Berkhamsted, once lived with the music legend in London between 1968 and 1969.

The photographer captured images of the late Heroes hitmaker for his Space Oddity's album cover - Space Oddity, released in 1969.

For years Vernon has been trying to find out where the original transparencies from the Space Oddity shoot had ended up.

He said: "I was concerned about possible fading over time and wanted to make sure they had been duped or scanned to preserve them.

"Mecury Records, my client had been absorbed into Philips then Parlophone, then Warner Music and in all that nobody knew where they had gone.

"But recently, I located them with Isolar, David's estate people in New York.

"They very kindly agreed to supply me with hi-res files of the whole shoot, some 26 images, unseen and unpublished except for the one used for original record sleeve in 1969.

"You can imagine how excited I felt looking at the pictures unseen for 52years!

"They show in fantastic quality and detail a very young David, no make-up, no photoshop or retouching, just as I remember him."

Vernon is planning to make a couple of the shots available as limited edition prints for the Bowie fans.