torchvision 0.8.0 introduces native image reading and writing operations for JPEG and PNG formats. Those operators support TorchScript and return CxHxW tensors in uint8 format, and can thus be now part of your model for deployment in C++ environments.
from torchvision.io import read_image

# tensor_image is a CxHxW uint8 Tensor
tensor_image = read_image('path_to_image.jpeg')

# or equivalently
from torchvision.io import read_file, decode_image
# raw_data is a 1d uint8 Tensor with the raw bytes
raw_data = read_file('path_to_image.jpeg')
tensor_image = decode_image(raw_data)

# all operators are torchscriptable and can be
# serialized together with your model torchscript code
scripted_read_image = torch.jit.script(read_image)

[Stable] RetinaNet detection model
This release adds pretrained models for RetinaNet with a ResNet50 backbone from Focal Loss for Dense Object Detection.
[Beta] New Video Reader API