The day Ian Fleming visited the James Bond Dr. No set

The official Ian Fleming Shop is offering prints of photos capturing the day Ian Fleming visited Pinewood Studios for the filming of Dr. No.

The day

22nd March 1962. Ian Fleming heads to Pinewood, Buckinghamshire to visit the set of the first 007 film. He tips off The Sunday Times - his long-term employer – who deploy trusted freelance photographer Frank Herrmann to document the day. The result is a unique series of images captured on one roll of film. 

We see Fleming’s exploration of the Ken Adam-designed set of Dr. No's Crab Key underground facility, his meeting with Sean Connery and other members of cast and crew. The Sunday Times has the exclusive and now Frank Herrmann is sharing the day as a limited series of signed and unsigned prints.

About the photographer

Frank Herrmann is widely regarded as one of the outstanding photojournalists of the latter part of the twentieth century, with an illustrious 30 year career at The Sunday Times. Born in Berlin in 1933, he settled in London with his family as a child and went on to capture subjects ranging from Winston Churchill, the Paris ’68 riots and the Yom Kippur War, to the most iconic pop-cultural moments of the day. Granted extraordinarily intimate access, Herrmann would be dispatched at short notice to shoot everything from the recording of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at Abbey Road Studios, to Roger Moore filming the first-ever episode of The Saint. As he once said, 'It was to be a fly-on-the-wall occasion, which was my favourite way of working, being able to observe people discreetly.' Herrmann’s work is held in many private collections, including the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection.

The prints

The following prints are available at the IFP shop:

• One signed, stamped and numbered Artist’s Proof contact sheet £5,000
• One signed, stamped and numbered contact sheet (#10/10) £4,500
• Open run contact sheet print £195
• Series of 25 signed, stamped and numbered Ian Fleming & Sean Connery prints £650

These are unframed archival pigment prints. Printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm fine art paper, specially designed for fine art applications - acid and lignin-free, it meets the most exacting requirements for age resistance. The stamp bears the name of long-closed camera shop, Pelling & Cross Ltd of 104 Baker Street, London.

When using traditional film, a roll of 36 is processed to produce a strip of negatives. The long roll of negatives is then cut into strips of six, usually with five or six frames on each strip. These strips are then laid onto a sheet of photographic paper in the darkroom and exposed to light. The paper is developed, fixed and dried to produce a set of 'positive' images on a sheet of photographic paper, known as a contact sheet for photographers and picture editors to select the best frames. An artist's proof is traditionally used to check colour, quality, and composition before the main edition is printed, ensuring the final result matches the artist's vision.

Find the collection at the official Ian Fleming shop.