CSUDH Built a Smarter Photo Archive for Modern Storytelling with PhotoShelter

A school with a legacy of storytelling 

California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) is a diverse public institution in Los Angeles County serving more than 16,000 students each year. With a strong focus on academic excellence and community engagement, the university captures thousands of photos documenting student life, events, and milestones. As its visual library expanded, CSUDH needed a professional, searchable system to organize and share its growing collection of assets across departments, designers, and alumni.

The challenge: Outdated tools couldn’t handle scale

University Photographer Matt Brown manages visual storytelling for CSUDH, covering campus life, events, and marketing needs across departments. His daily workflow relies on fast access to past photos, from media requests to design projects. But without a proper digital asset management system, every search felt like a time sink. The team was stuck using outdated tools built for personal photo sharing, not professional content management.

• Outdated tools lacked professional functionality. “When I got here, they were using SmugMug and Dropbox,” said Brown. “And I was like, this is not an archive. This is for posting photos of your kid’s soccer game.” Without structure, metadata, or reliable search, finding the right image was nearly impossible. Scrolling through endless galleries became the only option.
• No system for tracking what was being used. Without analytics, there was no way to understand which photos resonated across the university or were repeatedly reused. The team was flying blind, unable to make data-informed decisions about what visuals best represented the CSUDH community.
• Requests overwhelmed a small creative team. Designers, staff, and alumni constantly needed access to images, but with no self-serve system, every request funneled through Matt. He spent hours each week fielding emails and digging through folders, taking time away from photography and content creation.
• Tagging and search were entirely manual. Metadata entry took hours, and consistency was difficult to maintain across thousands of assets. Without automation, every upload added more strain on the team’s time and accuracy. Searching by subject or event was hit-or-miss, depending on how thoroughly each photo had been tagged.

“I couldn’t even calculate the amount of lost hours in a day that they must have scrolled on SmugMug. You keep feeding into a gallery, and if you want to go and see what you put in 30 days ago, you have to just scroll and scroll looking for photos.”

Matt Brown, University Photographer, California State University Dominguez Hills

The solution: A modern, AI-Powered DAM

Before PhotoShelter, finding a photo was close to impossible. Now, it’s instantaneous. CSUDH built a true visual archive that’s fast, searchable, and accessible to anyone across the university.

• A professional tool that saves time. “It’s simple,” said Brown. With PhotoShelter’s advanced search, tagging, and organization, his team can instantly locate any photo by keyword. “I showed the team a demo and said, ‘Pick a word. Type in anything. Day game, celebrating, sliding’, and all those photos would come up. Ta-da!”
• Analytics that shape better storytelling. PhotoShelter Analytics help Matt understand which photos resonate most.“I’ll also see what photos aren’t being downloaded, or even looked at, so then I’ll stop making those… Whatever it is, I look and I use that data to actually start pinpointing the needs of the university community,” he said.
• Easy access for every user. Many of Brown’s colleagues aren’t visual professionals, but PhotoShelter’s design makes it simple for anyone to use. “I had an alumnus ask for photos, and I said, ‘Just go to PhotoShelter and type it in… it’s like Google.’ If you’re on Google and you want a pair of jeans, you type in ‘pair of jeans.’ So, I told her, ‘Type in Dodger alumni event,’ and she typed it in and said, ‘I didn’t realize it was that easy.’” What once required several back-and-forth emails now takes only a few seconds.
• AI tagging that streamlines workflow. To maximize efficiency, Brown uses PhotoShelter AI tagging alongside custom tags. “I’ve got a list of tags that I will immediately add in… things like campus, college, students. And then I’ll use AI to fill in the rest. And the AI part has really blown people away, because you can put in ‘man walking with a laptop,’ and that stuff appears,” he said. AI tagging helps him spend less time at the computer and more time capturing the moments that matter.

“I was set up with PhotoShelter AI a few years ago now, and it worked out great. It saves me time, it’s very efficient, and it gets better as it goes… I’m trying to use it the most to save me time, so I’m not in front of the computer as much, and I can be out doing what I’m getting paid to do. I’m not really getting paid to sit in front of the computer inputting metadata all day long.”

Matt Brown, University Photographer, California State University Dominguez Hills

A simpler, faster way to work

For California State University Dominguez Hills, PhotoShelter transformed content management from a daily frustration into a seamless part of creative work. What once required endless searching and manual organization is now efficient, collaborative, and intuitive. Designers can find what they need in seconds, departments work from a single trusted archive, and the university’s visual storytelling feels more connected than ever. With PhotoShelter powering its image library, CSUDH can focus less on managing content and more on capturing the moments that define its community.

“PhotoShelter has made everybody’s life easier, especially the designers. I know that all three of them have said they are saving hours in a week. Hours… Now, they can just type in what they need… boom, done. And for me, that’s a huge plus if I can help them. I don’t need them wasting their time. It means they’re getting the product out quicker.” 

Matt Brown, University Photographer, California State University Dominguez Hills