When Deal photographer Harold Chapman took photos in Paris of the America Beat poets he could never have dreamed one of his shots would end up promoting a Hollywood film.

The black and white picture he took in the late 1950s is also being used worldwide in movie magazines for publicity for the movie Howl.

Mr Chapman, of Harold Road, is amazed at his sudden celebration status and delighted his slice of history has been re-enacted again.

He said: "When I took these photos of the writers in Paris, people used to laugh at me and called me mad!

"But I knew the Beats would be famous and my photos are now in museums and galleries worldwide and even sold in Sotheby’s auction sales in London and New York, but I never thought they would make it to Hollywood!"

Mr Chapman’s photo, now being used to promote Howl, shows Allen Ginsberg sitting back to back with his lover Peter Orlovsky.

The film has been premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in America and is directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. It is about the obscenity charges that Ginsberg had to face in 1957 following the publication of his poem.

Born in Deal in 1927, Mr Chapman moved to France in 1957 and lived there for more than 30 years.

He was fascinated by Paris and moved into Beat Hotel, taking pictures regularly of the poet Ginsberg and author William Hurrough, among many others.

Mr Chapman built up an international reputation as a first-class photographer, with his views featured in many books, magazines and exhibitions.

He returned to his home town of Deal in the early 1990s and regularly recalls his memories of the area in the Mercury’s Those Were The Days.

* Another full-length documentary movie, a lot of it shot in Deal, called The Beat Hotel, is now being edited by Alan Hatchett of Documentary Arts, Dallas. For more details see www.thebeathotelmovie.com/about