The system disclosed herein builds a database of image-related data by inputting a plurality of images, and for each image: dividing the image into N1 (N1≧1) regions which are substantially homogenous with respect to at least one attribute of the image, generating a graph based on M1 (M1≧1) of the N1 regions, and storing data for the graph in the database. The database may then be used to determine whether a query image is similar to one or more of the plurality of images. To this end, the system inputs the query image, and divides the query image into N2 (N2≧1) regions which are substantially homogenous with respect to at least one attribute of the query image. The system then generates a graph based on M2 (M2≧1) of the N2 regions, and compares the generated graph to other graphs in the database that correspond to the plurality of images. Thereafter, an image is retrieved from memory that has a graph that is substantially similar to the generated graph.