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Growly Photo is an easy-to-use app that may just offer the right solution. It enables you to structure your files into groups and folders, add keywords, apply captions, as well as perform some simple editing operations. Growly Photo offers some simple editing tools, though this is not the application’s primary function. It allows you to crop images, perform color adjustments and apply a range of visual effects.

You can even create personalized effect sets to ensure you always have the tools you need at your disposal when working with specific types of images. Growly Photo is a straightforward app created for users who need a quick and easy way to organize their photos. It is not suited for complex editing operations, but it performs the functions it was designed for well and is very easy to use.

iPhoto and its successor Photos are astonishing apps, but some people find them too controlling. They have their own ideas about where your files should go, and they seem to be just one scary step shy of artificial intelligence. If you’re looking for something simpler that won’t touch your files without your permission, Growly Photo is a humbler alternative.

Growly Photo does not import your photo files, it just remembers where they are. Within Photo you can create a structure of groups and folders as simple or complex as you like, to make finding and viewing your photos absolutely easy. At the top level are groups, for example you could organize your photos by year as in the screenshot above. You can also have groups for family, animals, collections, trips -- whatever you can think of. Each group contains folders, nested to any depth, and the folders contain references to your photo files.

Importing photos is as simple as dragging them from the Finder or choosing them from an open dialog. Import entire folders at once, or pick and choose individual files. Each photo can appear in any number of folders or collections, so you can store references to the same file by year and by subject.