Content-based image classification/retrieval based on image descriptors has become an essential component in most database systems. However, most existing systems do not provide mechanisms that enable interactive multi-objective queries, hampering the user experience. In this paper we present a novel methodology capable of accomplishing multi-objective searches while still being interactive. Our approach relies on a combination of class-specific metrics and multidimensional projection to devise an effective and interactive image retrieval system. Besides allowing visual exploration of image data sets, the provided results and comparisons show that the proposed approach outperforms existing methods, turning out to be a very attractive alternative for managing image data sets. © 2011 IEEE.