A famous photographer from Kent has passed away after living a “colourful life”.

Harold Chapman - whose works are now considered a rare collectors' items - was aged 95.

He leaves his wife Claire, two children - Sue and Richard, four grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

The photographer, from Deal, had dementia and spent the last 10 months of his life in Hawkinge House nursing home, near Folkestone.

Friends and colleagues have now paid tribute to the "unique talent", with one saying: "No-one is going to fill his boots".

Mr Chapman was best known for his work picturing the movements of the American Beats in the 60s.

Beat culture involved the rejection of standard values, the use of psychedelic drugs and sexual liberation and exploration.

Well-known literates from the culture include Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.

The group often stayed at the 'Beat' hotel in Paris, which a “class 13” hotel, meaning by law it only had to meet the minimum health and safety standards.

When the hotel closed its doors in 1964, Mr Chapman was the last to leave, having captured the Beats movements through his camera lens.

The book of photographs Mr Chapman took at the time is now a collector’s item.

He originally sold the book for £11 but a copy sold in New York for $2,250 in 1999.

His wife, Claire Chapman, said: “The Beats became celebrities in their own way because of their literary movement and it’s now studied.”

Mr Chapman first found his love of photography when his father bought him a photography set as a boy.

He wrote about his memory of this saying that it was this which would “start him off on his life’s adventure”.

“This is one of the things which is the clearest memory I have from my childhood,” he wrote.

“Two celluloid drawings, one of a galleon and one of a butterfly. Although I couldn’t read at this time, I figured out what had to be done."

Mrs Chapman met her husband in the south of France when visiting as part of her university degree.

“We met and we just got on, the rest is history,” she said. “I lived in France with him for 13 years from 1980 to 1993 then we came back to Deal.”

His wife recalled his final exhibition at Linden Hall Studio, in the seaside town.

“When he was 90, Linden Hall Studio said they’d never had an exhibition like it.

“So many people turned up and it was an amazing day.

“I thought, this is the Harold who loves all of this attention."

She added: “He always believed he was photographing for the future because he believed that things were vanishing.

"He believed in photographing things for future generations to see. As I sit in our office, there is still so much of Harold to come, so much of his work still to share.”

His exact cause of death is still not known.

Mrs Chapman added: “His death to me was poignant because he was making one last attempt to walk, using a walking frame, having mostly lost the ability to walk and stand in his last weeks."

The team from the Linden Hall Studio paid tribute to Mr Chapman on social media.

The post said: “Harold has been a key figure within the gallery programme ever since his hugely popular exhibition 'Not Only The Beat Hotel', which we held in 2016.

“We were delighted to begin representing him after that, and his wonderful photographs have brought great joy to or audience ever since.

“Harold Chapman will be greatly missed by all those who had the pleasure of knowing a truly wonderful photographer, artist and man.”

Friend the Rev Christopher Dent, who is conducting the service for Mr Chapman’s funeral, said: “We first met Harold 15 years ago; he was already in his 80th year. There is a photograph anywhere and everywhere, he told me, if only you look.

“Harold’s photographs have insight – they see into; they see behind and beyond the surface.

“Three years ago, in the course of conversation, I suggested I could bring a portable recorder to his home and record his treasure store of memories.

“On Tuesday mornings, for almost a year, we sat together while Harold talked.

"Harold’s range of memory was astonishing. In the poet, Emily Dickinson’s phrase, Harold would “tell all the truth but tell it slant”.

"His insight was always unconventional, and, like his photographs, unique. I miss those Tuesday mornings; it has been a privilege to know him.”

Former East Kent Mercury reporter Graham Gadd said: “I have known Harold since I was 16 and am now 86, so 70 years. Harold was a unique talent. No-one is going to fill his boots.”