diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 9ab8fbe..f55a65a 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -4,9 +4,12 @@ authors = ["IHP Systems R&D <research@ihp.dk>"]
 version = "0.6.0"
 
 [deps]
+ColorTypes = "3da002f7-5984-5a60-b8a6-cbb66c0b333f"
 GeometryBasics = "5c1252a2-5f33-56bf-86c9-59e7332b4326"
+ImageIO = "82e4d734-157c-48bb-816b-45c225c6df19"
 
 [compat]
+ColorTypes = "0.11.0"
 GeometryBasics = "0.4.1"
 julia = "1"
 
diff --git a/src/ImageAnnotations.jl b/src/ImageAnnotations.jl
index 521eab8..70622c5 100644
--- a/src/ImageAnnotations.jl
+++ b/src/ImageAnnotations.jl
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 module ImageAnnotations
 
+using ColorTypes
 using GeometryBasics
 
 export AbstractConcept, AbstractConceptAttribute, CategoricalConceptAttribute, Concept
diff --git a/src/abstract_image_annotator.jl b/src/abstract_image_annotator.jl
index add1293..aaacd69 100644
--- a/src/abstract_image_annotator.jl
+++ b/src/abstract_image_annotator.jl
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@ abstract type AbstractImageAnnotator{L, A <: AbstractImageAnnotation{L}} end
 
 abstract type AbstractObjectAnnotator{L, T, A <: AbstractObjectAnnotation{L, T}} <: AbstractImageAnnotator{L, A} end
 
-annotate(image, annotator::AbstractImageAnnotator) = error("No implementation for $(typeof(annotator))")
+annotate(image::AbstractArray{<:Colorant,2}, annotator::AbstractImageAnnotator) = error("No implementation for $(typeof(annotator))")
diff --git a/src/lazy_image.jl b/src/lazy_image.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a90cd66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lazy_image.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+abstract type AbstractLazyImage{TPixel <: Colorant} end
+
+struct LazyImageIOImage{TPixel} <: AbstractLazyImage{TPixel}
+    path::Union{String, Nothing}
+    image::Union{Array{TPixel, 2}, Nothing}
+end
+
+LazyImageIOImage{TPixel}(path::String) = LazyImageIOImage{TPixel}(path, nothing)
+
+# Instance properties
+
+Base.propertynames(::LazyImageIOImage) = fieldnames(LazyImageIOImage)
+
+function Base.getproperty(image::LazyImageIOImage, name::Symbol)
+    if name == :image
+        if image.image === nothing
+            image.image = load(image.path)
+        end
+        return image.image
+    else
+        return getfield(image, name)
+    end
+end
diff --git a/src/static_image_annotator.jl b/src/static_image_annotator.jl
index 067ef42..f2b3985 100644
--- a/src/static_image_annotator.jl
+++ b/src/static_image_annotator.jl
@@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ struct StaticObjectAnnotator{L, T <: Real, A <: AbstractObjectAnnotation{L, T}}
     annotations::Vector{A}
 end
 
-function annotate(image, annotator::Union{StaticImageAnnotator, StaticObjectAnnotator})
+function annotate(image::AbstractArray{<:Colorant,2}, annotator::Union{StaticImageAnnotator, StaticObjectAnnotator})
     return annotator.annotations
 end