O'Neill's iconic images of Sixties still a hit today

They are among the most iconic photographs of the Sixties and Seventies - Marianne Faithful pouts for the camera, a determined Frank Sinatra is flanked by bodyguards, David Bowie at his decadent peak.

And then there is the picture of the actress Faye Dunaway, slumped poolside, on the morning after the Oscars - with the best actor statuette she had accepted for the late Peter Finch on the table - one of the most evocative images of Hollywood.

The photographer was Terry O'Neill - Dunaway would become his second wife - and the images are among those in an exhibition at a London gallery which has become a surprise hit. More than 400 people crowded into the gallery last Saturday, while more than 100 limited edition prints have been sold, each signed by O'Neill. The prints sell for between £1,200 and £4,500.

The success has surprised O'Neill and the Chris Beetles Art Gallery. It cements O'Neill's reputation as one of the celebratedSixties photographers - with David Bailey and the late Terence Donovan - and underlines the popularity of photography as collectable art.

The success could not have come at a more poignant time for O'Neill, 68. Late last year he fell ill with cancer, and he starts a course of chemotherapy next month.

O'Neill has specialised in celebrity portraiture and worked for magazines such as Vogue, Rolling Stone and GQ.