diff --git a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAAppDelegate.m b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAAppDelegate.m
index 625ec82e3..5957405ad 100644
--- a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAAppDelegate.m
+++ b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAAppDelegate.m
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 #import "LAAppDelegate.h"
 #import "LACamliFile.h"
+#import "LAViewController.h"
 #import <AssetsLibrary/AssetsLibrary.h>
 
 @implementation LAAppDelegate
@@ -27,7 +28,9 @@
     NSAssert(credentials[@"camlistore_password"], @"no camlistore password specified");
     
     self.client = [[LACamliClient alloc] initWithServer:[NSURL URLWithString:credentials[@"camlistore_url"]] username:credentials[@"camlistore_username"] andPassword:credentials[@"camlistore_password"]];
-    
+
+    [(LAViewController *)self.window.rootViewController setClient:self.client];
+
     self.library = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init];
     
     return YES;
diff --git a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LACamliClient/LACamliClient.h b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LACamliClient/LACamliClient.h
index c20d1d8ef..a18dbe294 100644
--- a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LACamliClient/LACamliClient.h
+++ b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LACamliClient/LACamliClient.h
@@ -28,9 +28,10 @@
 @property BOOL authorizing;
 
 - (id)initWithServer:(NSURL *)server username:(NSString *)username andPassword:(NSString *)password;
-
 - (void)discoveryWithUsername:(NSString *)user andPassword:(NSString *)pass;
 
+- (void)getRecentItemsWithCompletion:(void (^)(NSArray *objects))completion;
+
 - (BOOL)fileAlreadyUploaded:(LACamliFile *)file;
 - (void)addFile:(LACamliFile *)file withCompletion:(void (^)())completion;
 
diff --git a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LACamliClient/LACamliClient.m b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LACamliClient/LACamliClient.m
index 55fb9f6fb..11785230e 100644
--- a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LACamliClient/LACamliClient.m
+++ b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LACamliClient/LACamliClient.m
@@ -44,6 +44,48 @@
     return self;
 }
 
+#pragma mark - discovery
+
+// if we don't have blobroot with which to make these requests, we need to find it first
+- (void)discoveryWithUsername:(NSString *)user andPassword:(NSString *)pass
+{
+    self.authorizing = YES;
+
+    NSURLSessionConfiguration *discoverConfig = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
+    discoverConfig.HTTPAdditionalHeaders = @{@"Accept": @"text/x-camli-configuration", @"Authorization": [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Basic %@",[self encodedAuth]]};
+    NSURLSession *discoverSession = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:discoverConfig delegate:self delegateQueue:nil];
+
+    NSURL *discoveryURL = [self.serverURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"ui/"];
+
+    NSURLSessionDataTask *data = [discoverSession dataTaskWithURL:discoveryURL completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
+        self.authorizing = NO;
+
+        if (error) {
+            LALog(@"error discovery: %@",error);
+        } else {
+
+            NSHTTPURLResponse *res = (NSHTTPURLResponse *)response;
+
+            if (res.statusCode != 200) {
+                LALog(@"error with discovery: %@",[[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]);
+            } else {
+                NSError *parseError;
+                NSDictionary *json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:0 error:&parseError];
+
+                self.blobRoot = json[@"blobRoot"];
+                self.isAuthorized = YES;
+                [self.uploadQueue setSuspended:NO];
+
+                LALog(@"good discovery");
+            }
+        }
+    }];
+
+    [data resume];
+}
+
+#pragma mark - upload methods
+
 - (BOOL)fileAlreadyUploaded:(LACamliFile *)file
 {
     NSParameterAssert(file);
@@ -80,49 +122,40 @@
     [self.uploadQueue addOperation:op];
 }
 
-// if we don't have blobroot with which to make these requests, we need to find it first
-- (void)discoveryWithUsername:(NSString *)user andPassword:(NSString *)pass
-{
-    self.authorizing = YES;
-    
-    NSURLSessionConfiguration *discoverConfig = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
-    discoverConfig.HTTPAdditionalHeaders = @{@"Accept": @"text/x-camli-configuration", @"Authorization": [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Basic %@",[self encodedAuth]]};
-    NSURLSession *discoverSession = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:discoverConfig delegate:self delegateQueue:nil];
-    
-    NSURL *discoveryURL = [self.serverURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"ui/"];
-    
-    NSURLSessionDataTask *data = [discoverSession dataTaskWithURL:discoveryURL completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
-        self.authorizing = NO;
-        
-        if (error) {
-            LALog(@"error discovery: %@",error);
-        } else {
-            
-            NSHTTPURLResponse *res = (NSHTTPURLResponse *)response;
-            
-            if (res.statusCode != 200) {
-                LALog(@"error with discovery: %@",[[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]);
-            } else {
-                NSError *parseError;
-                NSDictionary *json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:0 error:&parseError];
-                
-                self.blobRoot = json[@"blobRoot"];
-                self.isAuthorized = YES;
-                [self.uploadQueue setSuspended:NO];
-                
-                LALog(@"good discovery");
-            }
-        }
-    }];
-    
-    [data resume];
-}
-
 - (NSURL *)statUrl
 {
     return [[self.serverURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:self.blobRoot] URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"camli/stat"];
 }
 
+#pragma mark - getting stuff
+
+- (void)getRecentItemsWithCompletion:(void (^)(NSArray *objects))completion
+{
+    NSMutableArray *objects = [NSMutableArray array];
+
+    NSURL *recentUrl = [[[[self.serverURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"my-search"] URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"camli"] URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"search"] URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"query"];
+
+    LALog(@"reent url: %@",recentUrl);
+
+    NSDictionary *formData = @{@"describe": @{@"thumbnailSize": @"200"}, @"sort": @"1", @"limit": @"50", @"constraint": @{@"logical": @{@"op": @"and", @"a":@{@"camliType":@"permanode"}, @"b":@{@"permanode": @{@"modTime": @{}}}}}};
+
+    LALog(@"form data: %@",formData);
+
+    NSMutableURLRequest *recentRequest = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:recentUrl];
+    [recentRequest setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
+    [recentRequest setHTTPBody:[NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:formData]];
+
+    NSURLSessionDataTask *recentData = [self.session dataTaskWithRequest:recentRequest completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
+        LALog(@"got some response: %@",[[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]);
+    }];
+
+    [recentData resume];
+
+//    completion([NSArray arrayWithArray:objects]);
+}
+
+#pragma mark - utility
+
 - (NSString *)encodedAuth
 {
     NSString *auth = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@:%@",self.username,self.password];
diff --git a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAViewController.h b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAViewController.h
index abe8502a1..8531105e2 100644
--- a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAViewController.h
+++ b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAViewController.h
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@
 
 #import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
 
+@class  LACamliClient;
+
 @interface LAViewController : UIViewController
 
+@property LACamliClient *client;
+
 @end
diff --git a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAViewController.m b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAViewController.m
index c9505eeb9..80320307f 100644
--- a/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAViewController.m
+++ b/clients/ios-objc/photobackup/LAViewController.m
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 //
 
 #import "LAViewController.h"
+#import "LACamliClient.h"
 
 @interface LAViewController ()
 
@@ -17,6 +18,10 @@
 - (void)viewDidLoad
 {
     [super viewDidLoad];
+
+    [self.client getRecentItemsWithCompletion:^(NSArray *objects) {
+        LALog(@"got objects: %@",objects);
+    }];
 }
 
 #pragma mark - collection methods