Hi Everyone
Does anyone know of a sort of library where I could get photos as illustrations for one of my books, for example a photo of Shaftesbury Avenue. And what about deceased people? Getting permission to print photos of the living is relatively easy but deceased? I try to find their estates but keep hitting a brick wall even when I do, in that folk often don't reply. Living in hope that there is some sort of central library through which stuff like this can filter ..... am I making sense here? Hope so.
Mary

Hi Mary.
The image of a deceased person cannot be copyrighted. However, photographers (or the company they work for) retain copyright of their work.
Which means that you could paint or sketch or use your own photos of the deceased, but not use someone else's material without their permission (or the archiving institution which holds their material if they are deceased).
Off the top of my head, you could try contacting one of the the national newspapers (or the national archive at Collingdale), which should have an archiving department used to handling requests for copies.
I should think, however, that a lot of images on old postcards are probably out of copyright by now, if you go back to the first half of the 20th century and beyond.

- NaomiM

Hi
Thank you Naomi, that's really helpful. Will follow it up.
Mary

Naomi's right, the issue isn't whether the person is alive or dead, but who owns the copyright of the picture. As well as the newspaper archives you could also try the big image libraries - Hulton Getty, Mary Evans and so on - though they'll charge you, but at least the copyright position will be clear. Copyright lasts for 70 years after the picture/novel etc. was created, so as Naomi says, a photograph taken early in the 20th century would be okay. It's never easy, though - picture researchers earn their living doing this!

Emma

Hi Emma
Thank you very much for that. I hate all this obtaining permission bit! Don't mind paying, but it's such a hassle that in the end I just cut out the illustrations which makes me think that a central data base has to be the answer for everyone concerned.
Mary

Try local record offices - they have far more info relating to specific places and are less likely to charge huge fees.