1. A computer system method for modeling image content comprising the steps of: providing an input image; attaining a small number of locally coherent components by solving for the minimum of J ⁡ ( a , ζ ) = 1 p ⁢  f ⁡ ( a , ζ ) - b  p p + λ a ⁢ T ⁡ ( a ) + λ ζ ⁢  ζ  1 , s. t. ⁢ a ≥ 0 ,  ζ  ≤ 1 , wherein J(a, ) is a function that takes vectors as inputs, and whose output is a scalar, a is a one dimensional column vector of image content in terms of an amplitude function, is a one dimensional column vector of image content in terms of a cosine function applied to a phase function, f(a, ) represents a matrix-times-vector notation of the image content in terms of the amplitude function and the phase function, b is a one dimensional column vector of the input image approximated by the summation of a and , p is a natural and positive number representing the p-norm for finite-dimensional vector spaces, λ a represents a Lagrange multiplier of the total variation of vector a, T(a) refers to the total variation of vector a, λ represents a Lagrange multiplier of the vector norm of , ∥ ∥ 1 represents the vector norm of , s. t. represents “such that” the one dimensional column vector a is greater than or equal to zero and the absolute value of the one dimensional column vector is less than or equal to one; enforcing a piecewise smooth constrain for one or more instantaneous amplitude functions; calculating a resulting amplitude function and a resulting phase function; reconstructing the input image using the resulting amplitude function and the resulting phase function to obtain a reconstructed image; and displaying the reconstructed image on a display unit.