London (CNN) -- The first solo exhibition in about 20 years of early photos of the Beatles taken by a British photographer who designed five of their UK album covers is on display in London. 

Robert Freeman photographed and designed the Fab Four's second to sixth album covers and was the group's favored snapper for three years between 1963 and 1966 in their early and middle stages of fame. Freeman also traveled with the band on their momentous first tour of USA in 1964 when Beatlemania first spread across the Atlantic. 

Freeman, who is now in his 70s and lives near Seville in Spain, sold his entire Beatles collection to rock 'n' roll photo curator and agent Raj Prem many years ago. 

The 58-year-old Londoner has put up a solo exhibition of Freeman's work at Snap Galleries in Piccadilly Arcade, London. 

"Someone gave me Freeman's number in Spain and I contacted him and flew over to see him," Prem says. 

"I was so impressed by his collection of Beatles photos that I kind of did a deal and gave him some money and bought the entire collection. The increasing scarcity of the prints is making them go up in value all the time," he adds. "I did not know when I bought them that they would go up because I was at the beginning of my career -- I had no idea at all," says Prem. 

Freeman made no more than 25 editions of each print and many editions are now almost sold out. He is not making any more prints, so for some of the photos on sale, there is just one example left -- signed and numbered by him. 
When?
 in their early and middle stages of fame