Totnes rock and roll photographer, Robert Davidson, who snapped Frank Zappa sitting on the loo in a London hotel room, is staging an exhibition of his lost negatives.

Robert’s most famous image propelled Zappa to icon status, leading him to say: “I’m probably more famous for sitting on the toilet than for anything else.”

In the summer of 1967, 19-year-old Robert was assigned to attend a press call for Zappa’s upcoming show at the Royal Albert Hall. A sweltering August day, Zappa stripped off his shirt and then retreated to the loo. While scouting around for a suitable location, Robert heard the American artist speaking on the phone in the bathroom, and asked through the ajar door if he could take his picture.

Zappa obliged and the images of him on the throne, informally dubbed the ‘Zappa Krappa’ pictures, quickly gained cult status.

Robert took a total of 12 shots of Zappa that day. He never got paid for the job and three months later the negatives were taken by Zappa’s management, who wrongly thought Robert was benefiting exclusively from them.

The snaps were pirated prolifically, with unofficial poster reproductions running into the millions.

Fifty years after snapping the seminal image, Robert finally found them for sale on Ebay. He bought them and is now displaying the lost images for the first time at the Kommune Cafe in Totnes High Street until May.

Robert said: “Also on show for the first time is huge lenticular photograph with three photos of Frank which move as you walk past the image. Difficult to describe yet amazing to see!”

The exhibition will also feature Robert’s photos of Mick Jagger, the Moody Blues, Procul Harum, Dame Helen Mirren and the Queen.

There will be posters and prints for sale along with copies of Robert’s new book ‘I shot Frank Zappa.’