The challenge of image classification is based on two key elements: the image representation and the algorithm of classification. In this paper, we revisited the topic of image representation. Classical descriptors such as Bag-of-Features are usually based on SIFT. We propose here an alternative based on bio-inspired features. This approach is inspired by a model of the retina which acts as an image filter to detect local contrasts. We show the promising results that we obtained in natural scenes classification with the proposed bio-inspired image representation.