How to Cite an Image in MLA, APA & Chicago
An image is a source like any other: if you reproduce it, analyze it, or build an argument on it, it needs a citation that lets a reader find the same picture. The mechanics are the same across MLA, APA, and Chicago — name the creator, the title (or a description), the date, and where the image lives — but the order and punctuation differ by style. This guide walks through a museum work viewed online, a photograph on a website, and an image reproduced in a book.
The shortest answer: the artist or photographer is the author, the title of the work is italicized (or replaced with a bracketed description when there is none), the creation date is the work’s date, and the location is the holding institution plus the URL or the website where you found it. Add a figure caption only when you actually place the image in your paper.
What to collect before you cite
Open the page that hosts the image — not a Google Images thumbnail — and record:
- Creator — the artist, photographer, illustrator, or designer. If only an organization is credited, that organization is the author.
- Title — exactly as given. If the work is untitled, write a short factual description instead.
- Date — the year the work was created or published, not the date you looked at it.
- Medium — oil on canvas, photograph, lithograph, digital illustration. Required in Chicago, optional in MLA, given as a bracketed label in APA.
- Location — the holding museum and city, the website name, or the book it was reproduced in, plus a URL when the image is online.
The generator at / assembles the punctuation, italics, and hanging indent once you supply these fields.
The same image in MLA, APA, and Chicago
The source below is Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930), held by the Art Institute of Chicago and viewed on the museum’s collection website.
| Style | Reference-list / Works Cited entry |
|---|---|
| MLA 9 | Wood, Grant. American Gothic. 1930. Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic. |
| APA 7 | Wood, G. (1930). American Gothic [Painting]. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic |
| Chicago 18 (author–date) | Wood, Grant. 1930. American Gothic. Oil on beaver board. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic. |
Three differences stand out. The medium label. APA puts a bracketed [Painting] after the title; Chicago names the physical medium (Oil on beaver board.) as its own element; MLA omits it. The URL. MLA strips the https:// prefix, while APA and Chicago keep it. Date placement. MLA puts the work’s date after the title; APA wraps it in parentheses after the author; Chicago sets it bare right after the author block. If you viewed the painting in person rather than online, drop the URL and end MLA and Chicago at the institution and city.
Citing an image found on a website
A photograph or figure on a general website follows the same shape, with the website as the container. When the image has a named photographer, that person is the author; the website is where it lives.
- MLA: Holm, Anders. Polar Bear on Thin Ice. 2021. Climate Visuals, climatevisuals.org/polar-bear-thin-ice. Accessed 20 May 2026.
- APA: Holm, A. (2021). Polar bear on thin ice [Photograph]. Climate Visuals. https://climatevisuals.org/polar-bear-thin-ice
- Chicago: Holm, Anders. 2021. Polar Bear on Thin Ice. Photograph. Climate Visuals. https://climatevisuals.org/polar-bear-thin-ice.
When no individual creator is named, the organization or website that published the image moves into the author slot — the same rule used for a website with no author. When the image has no title, replace it with a short description (bracketed and unitalicized in APA, plain in MLA and Chicago). Add an MLA access date for pages that may change.
Citing an image reproduced in a book
When you study an image as a plate or figure inside a book, the artwork is the source and the book is the container. MLA handles this most directly:
Wood, Grant. American Gothic. 1930. Grant Wood: A Life, by R. Tripp Evans, Knopf, 2010, p. 102.
In APA and Chicago, the cleanest move is usually to cite the original work (museum and date) as in the main table, since that is what you are actually discussing. If you need to point a reader to the specific reproduction you used, cite the book itself — see how to cite a book — and identify the figure or plate number in your text.
In-text citations and figure captions
In running text, the in-text citation mirrors every other source in the style:
- MLA:
(Wood)— artworks rarely carry page numbers, so the surname alone is enough. - APA:
(Wood, 1930) - Chicago author–date:
(Wood 1930)
If you actually reproduce the image in your paper, label it as a figure directly beneath the picture. MLA numbers figures and gives the full source in the caption, which means a separate Works Cited entry is optional when the caption is complete:
Fig. 1. Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.
APA labels it Figure 1, gives a brief italic title, and adds a Note with a copyright attribution beneath the figure. Refer to the image in your text as “see Figure 1” (APA) or “see fig. 1” (MLA) so the reader knows where to look.