Techniques for storing objects (e.g., images) in and retrieving objects from a storage device (e.g., image store) in a rapid and efficient manner are disclosed. More particularly, the techniques include: storage of an object in and retrieval of an object from the storage device with reference to an object locator together with state and permission information, use of a directory structure of a file system to efficiently provide database structure for storage of the objects, storage and retrieval of object states as attributes of associated files in the file system, storage and retrieval of multiple versions of objects, and multi-threaded management of the storage device.