diff --git a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/BaseImageLoader.java b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/BaseImageLoader.java
index d2518eeb6..0bfddeb32 100644
--- a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/BaseImageLoader.java
+++ b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/BaseImageLoader.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 package org.datavec.image.loader;
 
+import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
 import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 import org.datavec.image.data.Image;
 import org.datavec.image.transform.ImageTransform;
@@ -35,10 +36,9 @@ import java.util.Random;
 /**
  * Created by nyghtowl on 12/17/15.
  */
+@Slf4j
 public abstract class BaseImageLoader implements Serializable {
 
-    protected static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(BaseImageLoader.class);
-
     public enum MultiPageMode {
         MINIBATCH, FIRST //, CHANNELS,
     }
@@ -62,13 +62,37 @@ public abstract class BaseImageLoader implements Serializable {
 
     public abstract INDArray asRowVector(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException;
 
+    /** As per {@link #asMatrix(File, boolean)} but NCHW/channels_first format */
     public abstract INDArray asMatrix(File f) throws IOException;
 
+    /**
+     * Load an image from a file to an INDArray
+     * @param f    File to load the image from
+     * @param nchw If true: return image in NCHW/channels_first [1, channels, height width] format; if false, return
+     *             in NHWC/channels_last [1, height, width, channels] format
+     * @return Image file as as INDArray
+     */
+    public abstract INDArray asMatrix(File f, boolean nchw) throws IOException;
+
     public abstract INDArray asMatrix(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException;
+    /**
+     * Load an image file from an input stream to an INDArray
+     * @param inputStream Input stream to load the image from
+     * @param nchw If true: return image in NCHW/channels_first [1, channels, height width] format; if false, return
+     *             in NHWC/channels_last [1, height, width, channels] format
+     * @return Image file stream as as INDArray
+     */
+    public abstract INDArray asMatrix(InputStream inputStream, boolean nchw) throws IOException;
 
+    /** As per {@link #asMatrix(File)} but as an {@link Image}*/
     public abstract Image asImageMatrix(File f) throws IOException;
+    /** As per {@link #asMatrix(File, boolean)} but as an {@link Image}*/
+    public abstract Image asImageMatrix(File f, boolean nchw) throws IOException;
 
+    /** As per {@link #asMatrix(InputStream)} but as an {@link Image}*/
     public abstract Image asImageMatrix(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException;
+    /** As per {@link #asMatrix(InputStream, boolean)} but as an {@link Image}*/
+    public abstract Image asImageMatrix(InputStream inputStream, boolean nchw) throws IOException;
 
 
     public static void downloadAndUntar(Map urlMap, File fullDir) {
diff --git a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/CifarLoader.java b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/CifarLoader.java
index 3d390c698..e513ebed3 100644
--- a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/CifarLoader.java
+++ b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/CifarLoader.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 package org.datavec.image.loader;
 
+import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
 import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils;
 import org.bytedeco.javacv.OpenCVFrameConverter;
@@ -47,6 +48,7 @@ import static org.bytedeco.opencv.global.opencv_imgproc.*;
  * There is a special preProcessor used to normalize the dataset based on Sergey Zagoruyko example
  * <a href="https://github.com/szagoruyko/cifar.torch">https://github.com/szagoruyko/cifar.torch</a>
  */
+@Slf4j
 public class CifarLoader extends NativeImageLoader implements Serializable {
     public static final int NUM_TRAIN_IMAGES = 50000;
     public static final int NUM_TEST_IMAGES = 10000;
diff --git a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/ImageLoader.java b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/ImageLoader.java
index d246c65ad..9c2c61d57 100644
--- a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/ImageLoader.java
+++ b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/ImageLoader.java
@@ -249,7 +249,14 @@ public class ImageLoader extends BaseImageLoader {
      * @throws IOException
      */
     public INDArray asMatrix(File f) throws IOException {
-        return NDArrayUtil.toNDArray(fromFile(f));
+        return asMatrix(f, true);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public INDArray asMatrix(File f, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            return asMatrix(is, nchw);
+        }
     }
 
     /**
@@ -259,34 +266,68 @@ public class ImageLoader extends BaseImageLoader {
      * @return the input stream to convert
      */
     public INDArray asMatrix(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
-        if (channels == 3)
-            return toBgr(inputStream);
-        try {
-            BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(inputStream);
-            return asMatrix(image);
-        } catch (IOException e) {
-            throw new IOException("Unable to load image", e);
+        return asMatrix(inputStream, true);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public INDArray asMatrix(InputStream inputStream, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        INDArray ret;
+        if (channels == 3) {
+            ret = toBgr(inputStream);
+        } else {
+            try {
+                BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(inputStream);
+                ret = asMatrix(image);
+            } catch (IOException e) {
+                throw new IOException("Unable to load image", e);
+            }
         }
+        if(ret.rank() == 3){
+            ret = ret.reshape(1, ret.size(0), ret.size(1), ret.size(2));
+        }
+        if(!nchw)
+            ret = ret.permute(0,2,3,1);     //NCHW to NHWC
+        return ret;
     }
 
     @Override
     public org.datavec.image.data.Image asImageMatrix(File f) throws IOException {
+        return asImageMatrix(f, true);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public org.datavec.image.data.Image asImageMatrix(File f, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
         try (BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))) {
-            return asImageMatrix(bis);
+            return asImageMatrix(bis, nchw);
         }
     }
 
     @Override
     public org.datavec.image.data.Image asImageMatrix(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
-        if (channels == 3)
-            return toBgrImage(inputStream);
-        try {
-            BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(inputStream);
-            INDArray asMatrix = asMatrix(image);
-            return new org.datavec.image.data.Image(asMatrix, image.getData().getNumBands(), image.getHeight(), image.getWidth());
-        } catch (IOException e) {
-            throw new IOException("Unable to load image", e);
+        return asImageMatrix(inputStream, true);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public org.datavec.image.data.Image asImageMatrix(InputStream inputStream, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        org.datavec.image.data.Image ret;
+        if (channels == 3) {
+            ret = toBgrImage(inputStream);
+        } else {
+            try {
+                BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(inputStream);
+                INDArray asMatrix = asMatrix(image);
+                ret = new org.datavec.image.data.Image(asMatrix, image.getData().getNumBands(), image.getHeight(), image.getWidth());
+            } catch (IOException e) {
+                throw new IOException("Unable to load image", e);
+            }
         }
+        if(ret.getImage().rank() == 3){
+            INDArray a = ret.getImage();
+            ret.setImage(a.reshape(1, a.size(0), a.size(1), a.size(2)));
+        }
+        if(!nchw)
+            ret.setImage(ret.getImage().permute(0,2,3,1));  //NCHW to NHWC
+        return ret;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/LFWLoader.java b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/LFWLoader.java
index d28c73318..b71c53e42 100644
--- a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/LFWLoader.java
+++ b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/LFWLoader.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package org.datavec.image.loader;
 
 
+import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
 import org.datavec.api.io.filters.BalancedPathFilter;
 import org.datavec.api.io.labels.PathLabelGenerator;
 import org.datavec.api.io.labels.PatternPathLabelGenerator;
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ import java.util.Random;
  *      most images are in color, although a few are grayscale
  *
  */
+@Slf4j
 public class LFWLoader extends BaseImageLoader implements Serializable {
 
     public final static int NUM_IMAGES = 13233;
@@ -270,19 +272,39 @@ public class LFWLoader extends BaseImageLoader implements Serializable {
         throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public INDArray asMatrix(File f, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+
     @Override
     public INDArray asMatrix(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
         throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public INDArray asMatrix(InputStream inputStream, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+
     @Override
     public Image asImageMatrix(File f) throws IOException {
         throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public Image asImageMatrix(File f, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+
     @Override
     public Image asImageMatrix(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
         throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public Image asImageMatrix(InputStream inputStream, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/NativeImageLoader.java b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/NativeImageLoader.java
index 88bc161f2..ae9e2a322 100644
--- a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/NativeImageLoader.java
+++ b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/main/java/org/datavec/image/loader/NativeImageLoader.java
@@ -248,17 +248,27 @@ public class NativeImageLoader extends BaseImageLoader {
 
     @Override
     public INDArray asMatrix(File f) throws IOException {
+        return asMatrix(f, true);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public INDArray asMatrix(File f, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
         try (BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))) {
-            return asMatrix(bis);
+            return asMatrix(bis, nchw);
         }
     }
 
     @Override
     public INDArray asMatrix(InputStream is) throws IOException {
-        Mat mat = streamToMat(is);
+        return asMatrix(is, true);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public INDArray asMatrix(InputStream inputStream, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        Mat mat = streamToMat(inputStream);
         INDArray a;
         if (this.multiPageMode != null) {
-             a = asMatrix(mat.data(), mat.cols());
+            a = asMatrix(mat.data(), mat.cols());
         }else{
             Mat image = imdecode(mat, IMREAD_ANYDEPTH | IMREAD_ANYCOLOR);
             if (image == null || image.empty()) {
@@ -272,7 +282,11 @@ public class NativeImageLoader extends BaseImageLoader {
             a = asMatrix(image);
             image.deallocate();
         }
-        return a;
+        if(nchw) {
+            return a;
+        } else {
+            return a.permute(0, 2, 3, 1);       //NCHW to NHWC
+        }
     }
 
     /**
@@ -331,19 +345,29 @@ public class NativeImageLoader extends BaseImageLoader {
     }
 
     public Image asImageMatrix(String filename) throws IOException {
-        return asImageMatrix(filename);
+        return asImageMatrix(new File(filename));
     }
 
     @Override
     public Image asImageMatrix(File f) throws IOException {
+        return asImageMatrix(f, true);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Image asImageMatrix(File f, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
         try (BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))) {
-            return asImageMatrix(bis);
+            return asImageMatrix(bis, nchw);
         }
     }
 
     @Override
     public Image asImageMatrix(InputStream is) throws IOException {
-        Mat mat = streamToMat(is);
+        return asImageMatrix(is, true);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Image asImageMatrix(InputStream inputStream, boolean nchw) throws IOException {
+        Mat mat = streamToMat(inputStream);
         Mat image = imdecode(mat, IMREAD_ANYDEPTH | IMREAD_ANYCOLOR);
         if (image == null || image.empty()) {
             PIX pix = pixReadMem(mat.data(), mat.cols());
@@ -354,6 +378,8 @@ public class NativeImageLoader extends BaseImageLoader {
             pixDestroy(pix);
         }
         INDArray a = asMatrix(image);
+        if(!nchw)
+            a = a.permute(0,2,3,1);     //NCHW to NHWC
         Image i = new Image(a, image.channels(), image.rows(), image.cols());
 
         image.deallocate();
diff --git a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/loader/TestImageLoader.java b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/loader/TestImageLoader.java
index 1683980f0..a82f12409 100644
--- a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/loader/TestImageLoader.java
+++ b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/loader/TestImageLoader.java
@@ -16,10 +16,16 @@
 
 package org.datavec.image.loader;
 
+import org.datavec.image.data.Image;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.nd4j.common.resources.Resources;
 import org.nd4j.linalg.api.ndarray.INDArray;
 
 import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
+import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.util.Random;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
@@ -208,4 +214,57 @@ public class TestImageLoader {
     private BufferedImage makeRandomBufferedImage(boolean alpha) {
         return makeRandomBufferedImage(alpha, rng.nextInt() % 100 + 100, rng.nextInt() % 100 + 100);
     }
+
+
+    @Test
+    public void testNCHW_NHWC() throws Exception {
+        File f = Resources.asFile("datavec-data-image/voc/2007/JPEGImages/000005.jpg");
+
+        ImageLoader il = new ImageLoader(32, 32, 3);
+
+        //asMatrix(File, boolean)
+        INDArray a_nchw = il.asMatrix(f);
+        INDArray a_nchw2 = il.asMatrix(f, true);
+        INDArray a_nhwc = il.asMatrix(f, false);
+
+        assertEquals(a_nchw, a_nchw2);
+        assertEquals(a_nchw, a_nhwc.permute(0,3,1,2));
+
+
+        //asMatrix(InputStream, boolean)
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            a_nchw = il.asMatrix(is);
+        }
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            a_nchw2 = il.asMatrix(is, true);
+        }
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            a_nhwc = il.asMatrix(is, false);
+        }
+        assertEquals(a_nchw, a_nchw2);
+        assertEquals(a_nchw, a_nhwc.permute(0,3,1,2));
+
+
+        //asImageMatrix(File, boolean)
+        Image i_nchw = il.asImageMatrix(f);
+        Image i_nchw2 = il.asImageMatrix(f, true);
+        Image i_nhwc = il.asImageMatrix(f, false);
+
+        assertEquals(i_nchw.getImage(), i_nchw2.getImage());
+        assertEquals(i_nchw.getImage(), i_nhwc.getImage().permute(0,3,1,2));        //NHWC to NCHW
+
+
+        //asImageMatrix(InputStream, boolean)
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            i_nchw = il.asImageMatrix(is);
+        }
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            i_nchw2 = il.asImageMatrix(is, true);
+        }
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            i_nhwc = il.asImageMatrix(is, false);
+        }
+        assertEquals(i_nchw.getImage(), i_nchw2.getImage());
+        assertEquals(i_nchw.getImage(), i_nhwc.getImage().permute(0,3,1,2));        //NHWC to NCHW
+    }
 }
diff --git a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/loader/TestNativeImageLoader.java b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/loader/TestNativeImageLoader.java
index 6e7705569..68e93107c 100644
--- a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/loader/TestNativeImageLoader.java
+++ b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/loader/TestNativeImageLoader.java
@@ -24,20 +24,19 @@ import org.bytedeco.javacpp.indexer.UByteIndexer;
 import org.bytedeco.javacv.Frame;
 import org.bytedeco.javacv.Java2DFrameConverter;
 import org.bytedeco.javacv.OpenCVFrameConverter;
+import org.datavec.image.data.Image;
 import org.datavec.image.data.ImageWritable;
 import org.junit.Rule;
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.rules.TemporaryFolder;
+import org.nd4j.common.resources.Resources;
 import org.nd4j.linalg.api.buffer.DataType;
 import org.nd4j.linalg.api.ndarray.INDArray;
 import org.nd4j.linalg.factory.Nd4j;
 import org.nd4j.common.io.ClassPathResource;
 
 import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
-import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileInputStream;
-import java.io.InputStream;
-import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.*;
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
 import java.util.Random;
 
@@ -604,4 +603,56 @@ public class TestNativeImageLoader {
         }
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testNCHW_NHWC() throws Exception {
+        File f = Resources.asFile("datavec-data-image/voc/2007/JPEGImages/000005.jpg");
+
+        NativeImageLoader il = new NativeImageLoader(32, 32, 3);
+
+        //asMatrix(File, boolean)
+        INDArray a_nchw = il.asMatrix(f);
+        INDArray a_nchw2 = il.asMatrix(f, true);
+        INDArray a_nhwc = il.asMatrix(f, false);
+
+        assertEquals(a_nchw, a_nchw2);
+        assertEquals(a_nchw, a_nhwc.permute(0,3,1,2));
+
+
+        //asMatrix(InputStream, boolean)
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            a_nchw = il.asMatrix(is);
+        }
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            a_nchw2 = il.asMatrix(is, true);
+        }
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            a_nhwc = il.asMatrix(is, false);
+        }
+        assertEquals(a_nchw, a_nchw2);
+        assertEquals(a_nchw, a_nhwc.permute(0,3,1,2));
+
+
+        //asImageMatrix(File, boolean)
+        Image i_nchw = il.asImageMatrix(f);
+        Image i_nchw2 = il.asImageMatrix(f, true);
+        Image i_nhwc = il.asImageMatrix(f, false);
+
+        assertEquals(i_nchw.getImage(), i_nchw2.getImage());
+        assertEquals(i_nchw.getImage(), i_nhwc.getImage().permute(0,3,1,2));        //NHWC to NCHW
+
+
+        //asImageMatrix(InputStream, boolean)
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            i_nchw = il.asImageMatrix(is);
+        }
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            i_nchw2 = il.asImageMatrix(is, true);
+        }
+        try(InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(f))){
+            i_nhwc = il.asImageMatrix(is, false);
+        }
+        assertEquals(i_nchw.getImage(), i_nchw2.getImage());
+        assertEquals(i_nchw.getImage(), i_nhwc.getImage().permute(0,3,1,2));        //NHWC to NCHW
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/recordreader/TestImageRecordReader.java b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/recordreader/TestImageRecordReader.java
index fdcbe959a..26cd83f06 100644
--- a/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/recordreader/TestImageRecordReader.java
+++ b/datavec/datavec-data/datavec-data-image/src/test/java/org/datavec/image/recordreader/TestImageRecordReader.java
@@ -474,16 +474,18 @@ public class TestImageRecordReader {
     public void testNCHW_NCHW() throws Exception {
         //Idea: labels order should be consistent regardless of input file order
         File f0 = testDir.newFolder();
-        Resources.copyDirectory("datavec-data-image/testimages/", f0);
+        new ClassPathResource("datavec-data-image/testimages/").copyDirectory(f0);
 
-        FileSplit fs = new FileSplit(f0, new Random(12345));
-        assertEquals(6, fs.locations().length);
+        FileSplit fs0 = new FileSplit(f0, new Random(12345));
+        FileSplit fs1 = new FileSplit(f0, new Random(12345));
+        assertEquals(6, fs0.locations().length);
+        assertEquals(6, fs1.locations().length);
 
         ImageRecordReader nchw = new ImageRecordReader(32, 32, 3, true);
-        nchw.initialize(fs);
+        nchw.initialize(fs0);
 
         ImageRecordReader nhwc = new ImageRecordReader(32, 32, 3, false);
-        nhwc.initialize(fs);
+        nhwc.initialize(fs1);
 
         while(nchw.hasNext()){
             assertTrue(nhwc.hasNext());
@@ -533,7 +535,7 @@ public class TestImageRecordReader {
 
         //Test record(URI, DataInputStream)
 
-        URI u = fs.locations()[0];
+        URI u = fs0.locations()[0];
 
         try(DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(new File(u))))) {
             List<Writable> l = nchw.record(u, dis);