diff --git a/sdks/python/apache_beam/ml/transforms/embeddings/huggingface.py b/sdks/python/apache_beam/ml/transforms/embeddings/huggingface.py
index 7fcaa9c9a5df..46b4ef9cf7d6 100644
--- a/sdks/python/apache_beam/ml/transforms/embeddings/huggingface.py
+++ b/sdks/python/apache_beam/ml/transforms/embeddings/huggingface.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 from apache_beam.ml.inference.base import ModelHandler
 from apache_beam.ml.inference.base import RunInference
 from apache_beam.ml.transforms.base import EmbeddingsManager
+from apache_beam.ml.transforms.base import _ImageEmbeddingHandler
 from apache_beam.ml.transforms.base import _TextEmbeddingHandler
 
 try:
@@ -114,6 +115,7 @@ def __init__(
       model_name: str,
       columns: List[str],
       max_seq_length: Optional[int] = None,
+      image_model: bool = False,
       **kwargs):
     """
     Embedding config for sentence-transformers. This config can be used with
@@ -122,9 +124,13 @@ def __init__(
 
     Args:
       model_name: Name of the model to use. The model should be hosted on
-        HuggingFace Hub or compatible with sentence_transformers.
+        HuggingFace Hub or compatible with sentence_transformers. For image
+        embedding models, see
+        https://www.sbert.net/docs/sentence_transformer/pretrained_models.html#image-text-models # pylint: disable=line-too-long
+        for a list of available sentence_transformers models.
       columns: List of columns to be embedded.
       max_seq_length: Max sequence length to use for the model if applicable.
+      image_model: Whether the model is generating image embeddings.
       min_batch_size: The minimum batch size to be used for inference.
       max_batch_size: The maximum batch size to be used for inference.
       large_model: Whether to share the model across processes.
@@ -132,6 +138,7 @@ def __init__(
     super().__init__(columns, **kwargs)
     self.model_name = model_name
     self.max_seq_length = max_seq_length
+    self.image_model = image_model
 
   def get_model_handler(self):
     return _SentenceTransformerModelHandler(
@@ -144,8 +151,14 @@ def get_model_handler(self):
         large_model=self.large_model)
 
   def get_ptransform_for_processing(self, **kwargs) -> beam.PTransform:
-    # wrap the model handler in a _TextEmbeddingHandler since
-    # the SentenceTransformerEmbeddings works on text input data.
+    # wrap the model handler in an appropriate embedding handler to provide
+    # some type checking.
+    if self.image_model:
+      return (
+          RunInference(
+              model_handler=_ImageEmbeddingHandler(self),
+              inference_args=self.inference_args,
+          ))
     return (
         RunInference(
             model_handler=_TextEmbeddingHandler(self),
diff --git a/sdks/python/apache_beam/ml/transforms/embeddings/huggingface_test.py b/sdks/python/apache_beam/ml/transforms/embeddings/huggingface_test.py
index f94e747c5edd..d09a573b6766 100644
--- a/sdks/python/apache_beam/ml/transforms/embeddings/huggingface_test.py
+++ b/sdks/python/apache_beam/ml/transforms/embeddings/huggingface_test.py
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
 try:
   from apache_beam.ml.transforms.embeddings.huggingface import SentenceTransformerEmbeddings
   from apache_beam.ml.transforms.embeddings.huggingface import InferenceAPIEmbeddings
+  from PIL import Image
   import torch
 except ImportError:
   SentenceTransformerEmbeddings = None  # type: ignore
@@ -46,10 +47,17 @@
 except ImportError:
   tft = None
 
+# pylint: disable=ungrouped-imports
+try:
+  from PIL import Image
+except ImportError:
+  Image = None
+
 _HF_TOKEN = os.environ.get('HF_INFERENCE_TOKEN')
 test_query = "This is a test"
 test_query_column = "feature_1"
 DEFAULT_MODEL_NAME = "sentence-transformers/all-mpnet-base-v2"
+IMAGE_MODEL_NAME = "clip-ViT-B-32"
 _parameterized_inputs = [
     ([{
         test_query_column: 'That is a happy person'
@@ -85,7 +93,7 @@
 @unittest.skipIf(
     SentenceTransformerEmbeddings is None,
     'sentence-transformers is not installed.')
-class SentenceTrasformerEmbeddingsTest(unittest.TestCase):
+class SentenceTransformerEmbeddingsTest(unittest.TestCase):
   def setUp(self) -> None:
     self.artifact_location = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix='sentence_transformers_')
     # this bucket has TTL and will be deleted periodically
@@ -277,6 +285,48 @@ def test_mltransform_to_ptransform_with_sentence_transformer(self):
       self.assertEqual(
           ptransform_list[i]._model_handler._underlying.model_name, model_name)
 
+  def generateRandomImage(self, size: int):
+    imarray = np.random.rand(size, size, 3) * 255
+    return Image.fromarray(imarray.astype('uint8')).convert('RGBA')
+
+  @unittest.skipIf(Image is None, 'Pillow is not installed.')
+  def test_sentence_transformer_image_embeddings(self):
+    embedding_config = SentenceTransformerEmbeddings(
+        model_name=IMAGE_MODEL_NAME,
+        columns=[test_query_column],
+        image_model=True)
+    img = self.generateRandomImage(256)
+    with beam.Pipeline() as pipeline:
+      result_pcoll = (
+          pipeline
+          | "CreateData" >> beam.Create([{
+              test_query_column: img
+          }])
+          | "MLTransform" >> MLTransform(
+              write_artifact_location=self.artifact_location).with_transform(
+                  embedding_config))
+
+      def assert_element(element):
+        assert len(element[test_query_column]) == 512
+
+      _ = (result_pcoll | beam.Map(assert_element))
+
+  def test_sentence_transformer_images_with_str_data_types(self):
+    embedding_config = SentenceTransformerEmbeddings(
+        model_name=IMAGE_MODEL_NAME,
+        columns=[test_query_column],
+        image_model=True)
+    with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+      with beam.Pipeline() as pipeline:
+        _ = (
+            pipeline
+            | "CreateData" >> beam.Create([{
+                test_query_column: "image.jpg"
+            }])
+            | "MLTransform" >> MLTransform(
+                write_artifact_location=self.artifact_location).with_transform(
+                    embedding_config))
+
 
 @unittest.skipIf(_HF_TOKEN is None, 'HF_TOKEN environment variable not set.')
 class HuggingfaceInferenceAPITest(unittest.TestCase):