1. A method of representing a set of images for pattern classification, the method comprising: receiving data points corresponding to the set of images in an input space; generating a neighboring graph indicating whether the data points are neighbors; estimating geodesic distances between the data points based upon the neighboring graph; representing each of the data points by an associated feature vector corresponding to the geodesic distances to other data points; applying Fisher Linear Discriminant to the feature vectors associated with the data points to obtain an optimal direction for projecting the feature vectors for pattern classification.