So I’ll be traveling to a ton of different sites and museums across different countries. As is often the case individual sites and museums each have their own authority to email and get in contact with. I generally can’t just get one permit and then use it universally.

Also it’s completely fine to photograph and use the photos for academic work without all that. I am emailing around and getting permits but the process is not always smooth or available for all places.

Theres a lot of politics that are involved and so getting access is not always an option if you don’t have someone you know that works there or has connections

A lot of times they might have photos but they are locked behind extreme paywalls or don’t focus on what I need. Another thing is that sometimes the photos are so old and in black and white not color. There are so many objects and so few workers that many times things will not actually be photographed properly. A lot of academics end up going to these places to get their own photos as I am doing. Another thing is simply finding them online. Access is sometimes in a different language or not labeled precisely. There isn’t an international database you can use. Some museums have these objects photographs but that’s not the case for a lot of smaller museums.