Visual Research and Licensing

Since the founding of PhotoAssist in 1989, we’ve expanded our services to meet the changing needs of museums, artists, publishers, and government agencies—but photo research and licensing are still at the heart of what we do.

We’ve found photos and cleared rights for numerous mass-market books, including John James Audubon: The Making of an American and Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race by Richard Rhodes and A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein.

In 2005, we helped sports legend Pat Croce fulfill his dream of creating the Pirate Soul Museum—now the St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum—by locating rare images and vintage engravings, negotiating the rights to historic portraits, and obtaining images from maritime museums worldwide. For drawings from books that were long out of print, we tracked down the original illustrators, finding some as far away as Scotland.

We’ll also help you negotiate confusing licensing agreements. By tracking each phase of the photo research process, our RightsPro™ multimedia management system protects your interests and keeps you on the right side of the law.

“PhotoAssist has helped me find fresh illustrations for two books. They offer plenty of choices, handle negotiations and invoicing, and deliver final selections organized on CDs. They’re an ideal service for a professional writer.”
—Richard Rhodes, recipient of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction

Other clients we’ve helped:

  • ABC News
  • Addison-Wesley
  • Ashton-Potter
  • Design Division
  • Discovery Communications
  • E2 Productions
  • Experience Music Project
  • Facts on File
  • FEMA
  • Florentine Films
  • Gallagher & Associates
  • GQ
  • Greenpeace
  • The Hampton-Brown Company
  • Harcourt School Publishers
  • Harry N. Abrams
  • International Spy Museum
  • Jane Goodall Institute
  • Maltz Museum of Jewish History
  • Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture
  • Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
  • Monticello
  • National Academy of Sciences
  • National Geographic Society
  • National Institutes of Health
  • Newseum
  • Random House
  • Robert Kenner Films
  • SRA/McGraw Hill
  • Supon Design Group
  • Time Life Books
  • U.S. Postal Service