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# Loading and Caching Assets and Thumbnails

Request image, video, or Live Photos content, and cache for quick reuse.

## Discussion

Photos automatically downloads or generates images to your specification, caching them for quick reuse. Use the [`PHImageManager`](/documentation/Photos/PHImageManager) class to request images of assets at a specified size, or AVFoundation objects to work with video assets. When working with large numbers of assets—for example, when populating a collection view with thumbnails—preload images in batches using the [`PHCachingImageManager`](/documentation/Photos/PHCachingImageManager) subclass.

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