Subject Guides
Using Images
Citing Images, Evaluating Image Quality, Image Copyright, Digital Imaging, Finding Images
Guide Contents
Citing Images without a Formatting Style
The Libraries’ Citation Help page has further examples of citation styles. To cite a work without a specific citation format, make sure to provide as much information as possible, including:
- Author or Creator name
- Title
- Year of creation
- Material
- Repository information (museum, library, or other owning institution)
- Image source (database, website, book, postcard, vendor, etc.)
- If from the web, the URL of the website
- Date accessed (for online retrieval)
For basic metadata guidelines (for student and faculty use in papers, class projects, or presentations, or to add metadata to your personal photographs), here is a handy guide (courtesy of the Embedded Metadata Working Group).
Citing Images
No matter where you get your image (Google image search, Artstor, museum website, scan from a book) or how you use it (PowerPoint, in a paper for class, a flyer, etc.), you MUST provide a citation for every image you use. This is as simple as adding any of the following information known about a work to the bottom of the digital image.
Chicago Style (from The Purdue OWL Chicago Style Guide under "Visual Arts"):
Bibliography:
Images from Print Sources:
Lastname, Firstname. Title. Date. Medium, height x width x depth (unit conversion). Location.
Example 1: The Swimming Reindeer. 11th millennium BCE. Mammoth ivory, 20.7 cm × 3 cm × 2.7 cm (8.1 in × 1.2 in × 1.1 in). British Museum, London, England.
Example 2: Frederick, Ivan. The Hooded Man. 2003. Photograph. The Economist, cover, May 8, 2004.
Digital Images/Images from Online Sources:
Lastname, Firstname. Title. Date. Medium, height x width x depth (unit conversion). Location. URL.
Example 3: Friedrich, Caspar David. Der Mönch am Meer. 1808-10. Oil on canvas, 110 cm × 171.5 cm (43 in × 67.5 in). Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/KwEv_TMiJhn5kA.
Footnote/Endnote:
Images from Print Sources:
Firstname, Lastname. Title, date, medium, height x width x depth (unit conversion), location.
Example 1: The Swimming Reindeer, 11th millennium BCE, mammoth ivory, 20.7 cm × 3 cm × 2.7 cm (8.1 in × 1.2 in × 1.1 in), British Museum, London, England.
Example 2: Ivan Frederick, The Hooded Man, 2003, photograph, The Economist, cover, May 8, 2004.
Digital Images/Images from Online Sources:
Firstname, Lastname. Title, date, medium, height x width x depth (unit conversion), location, URL.
Example 3: Caspar David Friedrich, Der Mönch am Meer, 1808–10, oil on canvas, 110 cm × 171.5 cm (43 in × 67.5 in), Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany, https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/KwEv_TMiJhn5kA.
MLA Style (from The Purdue Owl MLA Formatting and Style Guide under "A Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph"):
General Image Citation:
Lastname, Firstname. Title. Year, Location.
Example: Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Reproductions of an image (in a book, article, etc.):
Lastname, Firstname. Title. Year, Location of Original Work. Work where image appears, # ed., by Firstname Lastname, Publisher, p. Page number.
Example: Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800, Museo del Prado, Madrid. Gardener's Art Through the Ages, 10th ed., by Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner, Harcourt Brace, p. 939.
Digital Images/Images from Online Sources:
Lastname, Firstname. Title. Year. Title of Website, URL.
Example: Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo del Prado, www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-family-of-carlos-iv/f47898fc-aa1c-48f6-a779-71759e417e74.
APA Style (from The Purdue OWL APA Formatting and Style Guide under "Artwork in a Museum or on a Museum Website" and "Photograph (not associated with a museum"):
Artwork in a Museum:
Artist, A. (Year). Title of Artwork [Medium]. Name of Museum, City, State, Country.
Example: Hopper, E. (1942). Nighthawks [Painting]. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Artwork on a Museum Website:
Artist, A. (Year). Title of Artwork [Medium]. Name of Museum, City, State, Country. URL.
Example: Hopper, E. (1942). Nighthawks [Painting]. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/111628/nighthawks.
Photograph (not associated with a museum):
Photographer, P. (Year of publication). Title of photograph [Photograph]. Source. URL.
Example: Ryan, S. (2019). [Sea smoke on Lake Michigan] [Photograph] New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/world/year-in-pictures.html
*If the photograph does not have a title, include a description of the photograph in brackets in lieu of a title.
