A system and method for searching a finite collection of images using at least one semantic network. Upon receipt of a query from a user that includes a theme and one or more initial keywords, a set of keywords based on the theme and including the initial keywords is generated from one or more semantic networks corresponding to the theme and/or initial keywords. When the finite collection of images includes suitable metadata, a result set is generated of images corresponding to the expanded set of keywords. When the finite collection includes images lacking in metadata, a remote third-party image collection is searched with the set of keywords to obtain a result set that is used to train visual classifiers as to visual concepts associated with the keywords. The classifiers are used to classify the images in the finite collection lacking metadata and the search of the finite collection is performed with the set of keywords to generate a result set.