Renting the use of photos--how do I go about it?

[conceptualclarity]

I want to rent the use of one or more photographs that are publicly available, easily found on the Internet, that is. But I don't how I go about identifying who are the proprietors of the photos so I can contact them to seek to use the photos. I have done some searching on this topic with a frustrating lack of results.

I'm in the United States.

Any know-how you can lend me on this matter will be much appreciated.

 

[WinXPert]

Check the attribution. Some are free to use.

Best practices for attribution

 

[WinXPert]

Here are some free stock photo sites.

14 Amazingly Free Stock Photo Websites

I use Pixabay.

 

[Parsh]

If I'm not wrong, you intend to buy/rent high quality images for any commercial purpose. These are some very famous sites to get such:

• Shutterstock - used by most online multimedia houses and companies
• Dreamstime
• Fotolia
• Pexels

Except Pexels, all these sites have free and also royalty-free images to purchase. I've been using these since long.
These sites should be enough to get any kind of quality images.
Pexels provides images that can be used freely for both personal as well as commercial use.

 

[conceptualclarity]

Thank you gentlemen. I actually have in mind for now at least non-commercial use, as with an avatar on a website like this.