REX's Clerkenwell headquarters
Both Frank and Elizabeth are from Hungarian roots, and journalism ran in both families - Frank's father was editor-in-chief of Az Est, Hungary's leading newspaper group, while Elizabeth's, Henry Guttmann, was a prominent journalist writing for German newspapers and magazines. Guttmann amassed a large collection of photographs, illustrations and engravings which was later acquired by Picture Post magazine to form the nucleus of its picture library; a subsequent collection forms part of the Rex Features picture library. He fled Germany in the 1930s and, after some years in France, came to live in London.
Frank came to Britain to study at Cambridge, and served in the British Army during WWII. After demob he went into import-export. Elizabeth had been helping her father to "package" his feature articles, using the name Rex Features, and when she and Frank married they merged their respective skills in features packaging and sales to begin trading in photo features. Elizabeth ran the office in the front room of the family house in NW London, while Frank went out to sell in Fleet Street.
REX has an unparalleled reputation as the picture resource of choice for professional users of imagery.
Our online database allows immediate, easy access to more than 2,500,000 images; over 1,500 new pictures are added every day.
Our daily production may be fully digital these days, but we still have the backup of a massive archive stretching back to the early days of photography -- if you can't find it online, our library contains over 15 million images, and our friendly, knowledgeable researchers will be happy to help you find the picture you need.
In addition to a daily news and entertainment feed, relied upon by newspapers and magazines worldwide, the Press Agency also produces a constant stream of new features, comprising ready-made packages of pictures and words, as well as lifestyle, travel, wildlife and other creative imagery.
REX represents such major picture sources as the leading society photographer Richard Young, the French agency Sipa Press, top US celebrity agencies Berliner Studios and Startraks, film stills archives The Everett Collection and Snap Photo Library, and the ITV Archive, plus hundreds of freelance photographers and agencies around the world.
In early 1954 the couple were asked by a small Paris news agency to sell its pictures in the UK, and so Rex Features as an international agency was born. Word of their efficient and reliable service quickly spread; by the 1960s, Rex represented a growing roster of photographers, including the legendary showbiz photographer Dezo Hoffmann, and was providing a regular supply of features, news and celebrity pictures to the press in Britain and overseas.
REX, already successful and respected, raised its profile dramatically in 1981, with the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981.
Its fast, comprehensive and high-quality coverage beat the more established agencies into many newspapers and magazines around the world. Picture editors quickly came to rely on Rex for deadline material of all types, as well as for its rapidly-growing, multi-faceted library.
Rex has notched up countless celebrity and news exclusives over the years, including such high-profile hits as: Liz Taylor and Richard Burton smooching at his 50th birthday party; the first picture of Prince Charles holding hands with Camilla Parker Bowles; the first pictures of Mick Jagger together with Luciana Morad and their son Lucas; inside David and Victoria Beckham’s World Cup charity party; world exclusive pictures of Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, in his coffin; coverage of the world’s first arm transplant operation; pictures transmitted back from Mt. Everest of the discovery of the mummified remains of mountaineer George Mallory; the photos that shocked the world, of a baby’s corpse dumped in the gutter in a Chinese city.
Over the past 53 years the agency has established itself as one of the leading sources of editorial photography, with contributors and sales agents throughout the world. The company now owns a substantial building in London's historic Clerkenwell district, where it employs over 80 staff looking after the interests of its hundreds of photographers, and providing an industry-leading service to many thousands of clients.
Rex also has offices in New York and Los Angeles.