Harvard Referencing Images: Photos, Illustrations and Images From Websites

Harvard referencing images has no single official manual. Harvard is a family of author-date styles, and each school sets its own version. Our generator follows Cite Them Right (12th edition) by Richard Pears and Graham Shields, the guide that most UK university library pages point to. Details such as "no date" versus "n.d." change from school to school.

Check your assignment brief first

If your course gives its own guidance, follow it. Dundee's art and design library page says to follow your assignment's instructions even where they differ from its guide.

The pattern for Harvard referencing images in one line

Creator (Year) Title of image [Medium]. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Paste a web page into the free Harvard referencing generator to build the base of the entry, then add the bracketed medium by hand.

This is how Harvard referencing an image from a website works, based on the image guidance published by Newcastle University and the University of Wolverhampton.

What goes in the entry

• Creator: the photographer, a username, or the organization that posted it.
• Year: the year the image was published or created.
• Title: in italics. If the image has no title, describe it briefly.
• Available at: the exact address of the page.
• Accessed: the day you viewed it, written as (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

Cite the original page

When Harvard referencing an image from a website, reference the original page that hosts it, not the search results page. Click the image in Google or Bing to reach its source, and use that web address. Wolverhampton's library gives the same advice.

Harvard image referencing example for a web graphic

Cranbrook Medical Practice (2021) Healthy meal plate. Available at: [URL] (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

That entry is based on the University of Suffolk library's example, where the same graphic is cited in the text as (Cranbrook Medical Practice, 2021). We set the title in sentence case; keep the capitals shown on the page you cite.

A photograph needs a creator, a year, a title and, in many schools, the word [Photograph] in square brackets. Harvard referencing photos works a little differently depending on where you found the picture.

A photo in an archive or collection

Lange, D. (1936) Migrant Mother [Photograph]. Library of Congress. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017762891/ (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

The in-text citation is (Lange, 1936). That is the model for Harvard referencing photos from any archive.

Your own photographs

For Harvard referencing photos you took yourself, Newcastle's library says you needn't strictly cite them, though it recommends doing so. It requires a citation for photographs that are sources of information, such as archive material, a poster or an artwork you discuss. Its pattern is photographer, year in round brackets, title in italics, [Photograph], then place and publisher if there is one.

Photographers who use a username

For Harvard referencing photos on Flickr or Instagram, Wolverhampton says to give the photographer or username first, then the year in round brackets, then the title in italics.

Harvard referencing illustrations from a book or journal article is different from web images. You reference the book or article, not the picture.

Illustration from a book

For Harvard referencing illustrations, add the figure number after the page number in the in-text citation, as Newcastle's guide describes: Author, Year, page, figure. An illustrative citation is (Berger, 1972, p. 34, Fig. 3). The reference list holds the whole book:

Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin.

When someone else made the picture

When someone other than the author drew the picture, practice varies. Anglia Ruskin's library, for example, cites the image's creator and the book that reproduces it, as in (Degas, 1883 reproduced in Terrasse, 1972, p.41), and lists only the book. Ask your tutor whether your school uses this form.

Illustrations from the web

For Harvard referencing illustrations found online, use the website pattern above, with the creator as author. Add [Illustration] after the title if your school asks for a medium.

For Harvard referencing images of a painting or sculpture you saw in a gallery, UCL's library pattern is artist, year, title in italics, the medium in square brackets, then the institution and its city. UCL's example is Dali, S. (1958) Madonna. [Oil on canvas]. Tate Gallery, London.

Example

Wood, G. (1930) American Gothic [Oil on beaver board]. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.

The in-text citation is (Wood, 1930).

Artwork seen online

If you viewed it online, add the web address and access date to the same entry. UCL says to introduce the access date with "Accessed". Our entry then ends with: Available at: [collection page URL] (Accessed: 26 October 2026). If the date is unknown, write (no date).

Harvard referencing images from stock libraries is still required. De Montfort University's library says images from Microsoft software have to be cited and referenced like other images.

Images with little information

Those images often lack a creator, date or title. DMU advises a short description as the title, any other information you have, a medium such as [Microsoft stock image] in square brackets, and an access date. Our version is:

Red and white beach umbrellas [Stock image] (no date). Available at: [URL] (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

Creative Commons licenses

Newcastle's photograph page says that if your work will be made public, you may add a Creative Commons license, usually CC-BY. Check the license before you reuse a picture.

For Harvard referencing photos from social media, Newcastle's image guide covers an Instagram image; UCL has a separate, simpler Instagram page. Newcastle's shape: creator or account, year, a title for the post, [Instagram], the day and month, Available at:, and Accessed.

Instagram pattern

natgeo (2024) ‘Sunrise over Table Mountain’ [Instagram]. 5 March. Available at: [post URL] (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

The post, title and date here are illustrative. Use the real caption, post date and web address. The in-text citation is (natgeo, 2024).

No creator name

UCL's Instagram sample entry shows no title or [Instagram], only the account, year and date. For a picture with no creator, Wolverhampton starts with the image title, then the year.

Missing details are a common snag in Harvard referencing images.

No creator

Start the entry with the image title, as Wolverhampton advises, and use the title in the in-text citation, as Newcastle does. Illustrative: Students studying in the library (no date). Available at: [URL] (Accessed: 26 October 2026), cited as (Students studying in the library, no date).

No date

Write (no date) in the year position. The Newcastle guide uses it. Anglia Ruskin's guide uses n.d. instead. The only rule is to be consistent with your school.

No creator, title or date

Try to find a file name in the image's properties. Anglia Ruskin's library suggests this. If you still have nothing, describe the subject yourself as the title, and ask whether the image is reliable enough to use.

Harvard referencing images always needs an in-text citation as well as a reference entry. The in-text form is the creator's surname and the year, or the title if the creator is unknown, as Newcastle's guide explains. Here is how each case looks in a Harvard image referencing example:

Decorative or informative?

Suffolk's library separates decorative images, which add visual appeal and could be removed without losing meaning, from non-decorative ones. A decorative image needs a citation with the creator and year. An informative image needs a figure number and title too. Either way, every image needs a full reference entry.

When you embed an image, give it a caption. Newcastle says a caption can go above or below the image and includes a figure number, a title or short description, and the source details.

A caption example

Figure 1: Healthy meal plate (Cranbrook Medical Practice, 2021)

Suffolk gives that form for a non-decorative image. Westminster's library shows another layout: figure number, creator, title in italics and date.

Rules to follow

1. Number figures in order and keep the numbering consecutive.
2. Refer to each figure by number in your text, for example "Figure 1 shows…".
3. Put the full reference in your reference list, in the same format as an online image.
4. For a long paper, add a list of figures after the contents page, as Newcastle recommends.

Caption styles vary, so ask which layout your department prefers.

These slips in Harvard referencing images cost the most marks.

One last check

Entries sit in alphabetical order by the first word, with no number and a plain list. Page layout varies by school, so follow your department's handout. If another course wants APA, our guide to how to cite an image in APA shows the differences.

You now have every piece of Harvard referencing images: the entry pattern, the website case, photos, illustrations, gallery artwork, stock and social media pictures, and captions. For Harvard referencing images in a class paper, aim for one entry per image, an in-text citation wherever you mention it, and a caption wherever you show it.

When you build the list, the Harvard referencing generator formats your books, articles and web pages, and you can add the bracketed medium for images by hand. Start the paper with the Harvard title page generator, and browse more topics on the student writing guides page. For one university's own examples, see the UCL Harvard painting and drawing page.