Two entrepreneurs are setting up the world's fastest-growing Internet photogallery.

James West, a former photographer and Internet developer for an Oxford University research department, and Tom Dean, a former Internet analyst for the Deutsche Bank in London, aim to offer photographers a fair deal on how their images are sold over the Internet.

Alamy.com, based at Milton Park, near Abingdon, which uses the latest web technology, has quadrupled in size since it was set up last September.

The company is chaired by Mike Fischer, founder of computer company Research Machines, and is being courted by major software and hardware sellers before its launch this autumn in the UK, Germany and Japan.

Photographers will be invited to upload high-quality digital images to be made available to buyers via the Internet.

Mr West said: "By offering photographers the right to control how their images are sold, we want to be the antidote to the market controlling strategies of companies such as Corbis, a digital library owned by Bill Gates."

In January 2000 the company moved to a larger site in Milton Park. Mr West said: "It is often said that the Internet can enable firms to operate from anywhere. This is not the case. We are doubling in size over the next two months and finding talented people at short notice requires a local concentration of IT professionals.

"Oxfordshire gives us room to expand and a large pool of IT skills to draw from." The company is acting as a case study for key software and hardware providers.