How to Get Permission for Pictures?

[Eleatic Guest]

I am a bit at loss what to do. I need a number of pictures on Celtic artwork to illustrate an article for a free online journal. However, most these pieces have only been published in printed books by scholars or museums; they are not available in online databases such as Flickr etc. where it is easy to contact the photographer personally. In some cases the authors themselves do not even hold the copyrights but credit other scholars or institutions for permission to use them.

My question is can I use these images without explicit permission if I credit the author as copyright holder and cite his book as source? Or do I need to contact the publishing house?

The thing is, since I don't get any money for my article, I would be reluctant to pay for picture use, particularly since we talking here about more than one, two images.

How do you go about acquiring pictures for your publications you don't hold copyrights on?

[Vindex]

If the pictures are going on line it is probably best not to use them; but if you must then a credit as far as you know it may be enough.

Always better to ask, I think. Most people are very generous!

In the past I have contacted museums and they have forms to fill in for the use of their images and what amounts to a nominal fee. When the Museum of Scotland realised that the circulation of the publication I was writing for was very small, they let me use their images for free as long as I credited them.