Writing Support

Include the complete citation at the end of your paper in a works cited section. Works cited are organized by the author's last name (or title in the case of no author) in alphabetic (A-Z) order. Use an hanging indent to separate each list item.

Note: 

1. MLA defines Title of Work as a work that is contained within a larger work. For example, an image can belong to a collection. In this case, the image is the Work and the collection is the Container. 
   If you are citing the whole collection, then it's considered an Independent Work, so you only need to include the title of the collection in your Works Cited entry. 
2. Repository can be a physical location where the work is housed, such as a museum, a gallery, a book or a magazine, but it can also be a website or a database. 
3. Year of Creation is the year that the image was created, while Year of Publication is the year that the work was published or exhibited either physically or digitally. For example, a painting might be created in 1997 but you saw it in a 2025 exhibition, in which case, you will need to cite both years accordingly. 

I'm citing...

Captions are used when you are inserting an image into your work. Captions for images in MLA start with Fig. followed by a number to mark the order of the image in your work. 

Caption with full citation 

Organize the bibliographic elements how you would in a Works Cited page, but do not invert the name of the creator and use commas to separate the elements. 

Fig. 1. Vincent van Gogh, The Olive Trees, 1889, Museum of Modern Art, 2001, postcard.

Caption with shortened citation 

Only include key information of the image, such as the creator's full name (not inverted), title of the work, and the repository.  

Fig. 5. Vincent van Gogh, The Olive Trees, Museum of Modern Art.

In-text citations are used when you are referring to an image in your work. Referring means you only mention the image without inserting it. 

Follow the basic format for MLA in-text citations. 

Note:

Only include page number(s) if the image is found in a textual source, such as a book, a magazine, or a journal article. 

Currently, there are no rules in MLA for citing images in a presentation. The rule of thumb is that even for free stock images, you will need to cite it. If your instructor doesn't specify how they want the images to be cited, you have a few options:

• Include the full citation of the image in a caption below the image 
• Include a Works Cited page entry with the full citation and a caption with the shortened citation below the image
• Include a link to the image below the image