JUST imagine getting to photograph Sean Connery, Joanna Lumley, Jack Nicholson, or Julia Roberts.

It has to be a photographer's dream. So Newport photography student Matthew Dunham (pictured) found an unusual way to make it come true.

He couldn't get to the big names of Hollywood, so he got the next best thing - their lookalikes.

And now his shutter has snapped shut on 18 different 'stars' including 'Joanna Lumley', 'Sean Connery', 'Sir Anthony Hopkins', 'Liz Hurley' and 'Hugh Grant'.

Matthew, 23, has just completed a three-year documentary photography course at the University of Wales College, Newport.

He decided on the idea for his final-year project after watching a documentary about how people make a living out of imitating other people.

"There are so many people who make a living from being a celebrity lookalike that I thought it would be a good topic for a project," he said.

After coming up with the idea Matthew e-mailed an agency on the Internet which put him in touch with Welsh lookalikes and lookalikes.co.uk.

He said: "The Joanna Lumley and Julia Roberts lookalikes were the most true to life." The Jack Nicholson lookalike he photographed is Port Talbot's Meyrick Sheen, who has a few celebrity connections himself.

Meyrick is the father of Broadway actor Michael Sheen and uncle of Caerleon's West End star Caroline Sheen.

Matthew now hopes to use the photographs to launch a career in photographic journalism. He has already taken photographs for the Independent newspaper.

"Some of the lookalikes were very realistic, and it was good practice for the future," he said.