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History textbooks from middle school through high school have elaborate pieces of art interspersed throughout blocks of text. Most of these are famous paintings, residing in museums throughout the world. As these pieces are not public domain like some text excerpts are, how do they end up on the page? Generally, textbook publishers must undergo a process called art buying to place new content on a page.
Art buying is a streamlined process. And, whether a textbook publisher keeps the editorial work in-house or out, they must interact with sellers they wish to buy the art from. It is a rare circumstance where art can be sourced all in-house.
In order to keep art in house, a publisher must rely on their own libraries of illustrations, maps, photographs, and other graphic art. At larger publishers, they may employ a photographer. Any images that this artist takes, then belong to the publisher. They do not have to pay any additional fees to use this artwork. The same goes for sourced illustrations, or graphic-creation content. Utilizing in-house resources cuts costs considerably for textbook creation. Though you then are limited to your library, and your artistic resources.
Art buying happens when editorial and design teams need images they do not currently own. Designers and production staff know how text will flow throughout a page, and they know what percentage of a given spread (a left and right page) is supposed to have a picture or pictures. Editorial will then log a description of an image they are envisioning, if not the name of the portrait/painting, itself. Sometimes, editorial staff are so familiar with the layout of history textbooks, for example, they may have exact paintings in mind. I've seen this myself a few times, and it's always mind-boggling to me. Editorial will also provide art specs in the relevant art log for images they need to be created.
After editorial has filled out the relevant art log, the art logs go to photo research teams and to art managers. Photo researchers search for images that match editorial's description (or photo spec). After they believe they have found some images that satisfy the needs of the editorial teams, they will compile them in a central location. Editorial and design will then vet the images, looking for the image that is the closest to fitting the needs for the textbook. That art will be ultimately selected. Depending on where they found the image, they will need to contact the company for purchase of the image. Depending on budget, the art buying process will move forward, or the photo research team will need to come up with further options. After art is purchased, the image's information will be added to the credits pages.
Art managers will also take art specs that describe a yet-to-be-created image, and will contact artists and designers to source the work. So, if a book needed a picture of a young girl riding a horse, for example, depending on the desired art style, an art manager will contact a freelance artist to produce the image. The same goes for graphic design elements like specialized tables/charts/graphs. Depending on the relationship with the freelancer, usually there is no need to put these art pieces in the credits of the finished textbook.
Art buying and management has evolved with the digital era, making the process fairly streamlined. Different layers of approval for art may occur if textbook packagers enter into the equation. The packager may approve of a given image, but their client may have a different artistic vision.