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How to Cite a Photo Book

Nothing can spice up an already compelling text like the addition of a perfectly relatable visual aid, such as a photo. Whether it's an essay assigned for class, a professional document or non-fiction piece to be released commercially, a pertinent picture can explain details about your subject that words cannot convey. However, once you've found that picture, how do you make sure that the original illustrator gets the credit they deserve? You can put together a serviceable citation for your work that covers all required information by perusing the photo book for just a few moments.

Things You'll Need

  • Word-processing software
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Instructions

    • 1

      Determine the exact name of the illustrator or photographer who created the pictures found in the photo book. If there is any original text accompanying the photos that was not also created by the illustrator, find that author's name as well. This can be found on the front cover or the introductory section in the pages before the book begins.

    • 2

      Find information pertaining to the publishing house that released the photo book, the city in which the publishing house operates and the copyright year for the photo book. The publishing house and the city of publication can both be found on the title page inside the book. The year of copyright, or original publication, is found on the copyright page immediately preceding the title page.

    • 3

      Use your word-processing software to create a bibliography reference for the photo book citation. For most citation styles, including MLA, APA and Chicago, photo book citations will look very similar to citations for normal books. Begin the citation with the author's name in regular type, and then write the book's title in an italicized font. After the book's title, add the illustrator's name in regular type with the abbreviation "illus." preceding it. For a book with photos by Jane Doe, the illustration part of the citation would read: illus. Jane Doe. If you use only photos from the book and no text, you may decide to drop the author's name and move the illustrator's name to the first part of the citation. In this case, drop the "illus." abbreviation, and invert the first and last name to correspond with citation style: Doe, Jane.

    • 4

      Include any in-text citations, notes or references that are required by the citation style or in the assignment guidelines. MLA in-text citations consist simply of the author or illustrator's name in parentheses following cited information. APA and Chicago in-text citations also require the page number that information was taken from.

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