diff --git a/CHANGELOG.txt b/CHANGELOG.txt
index 6fabb6014..ac7c21cd9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.txt
+++ b/CHANGELOG.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Changelog
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
  * Core templatetags (pageurl, image, wagtailuserbar, etc) are now compatible with Jinja2
+ * Image and document models now provide a `search` method on their QuerySets
  * WagtailRedirectMiddleware can now ignore the query string if there is no redirect that exactly matches it (Michael Cordover)
  * Order of URL parameters now ignored by redirect middleware (Michael Cordover)
  * Added SQL Server compatibility to image migration (Timothy Allen)
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.2.rst b/docs/releases/1.2.rst
index 53f40f907..07b0a322b 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.2.rst
+++ b/docs/releases/1.2.rst
@@ -18,6 +18,14 @@ The core templatetags (``pageurl``, ``slugurl``, ``image``, ``richtext`` and ``w
 See: :doc:`/advanced_topics/jinja2`
 
 
+Improved search mechanism for images and documents
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Wagtail's image and document models now provide a ``search`` method on their QuerySets, making it easy to perform searches on filtered data sets.
+
+See: :ref:`wagtailsearch_images_documents_custom_models`
+
+
 Minor features
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
@@ -36,3 +44,22 @@ Bug fixes
  * Deleting a page permission from the groups admin UI does not immediately submit the form
  * Wagtail userbar is shown on pages that do not pass a ``page`` variable to the template (e.g. because they override the ``serve`` method)
  * ``request.site`` now set correctly on page preview when the page is not in the default site
+
+
+Upgrade considerations
+======================
+
+``Image.search`` and ``Document.search`` methods are deprecated
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The ``Image.search`` and ``Document.search`` methods have been deprecated in favour of the new QuerySet-based search mechanism - see :ref:`wagtailsearch_images_documents_custom_models`. Code using the old ``search`` methods should be updated to search on QuerySets instead; for example:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    Image.search("Hello", filters={'uploaded_by_user': user})
+
+can be rewritten as:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    Image.objects.filter(uploaded_by_user=user).search("Hello")
diff --git a/docs/topics/search/searching.rst b/docs/topics/search/searching.rst
index 2877384ff..9314c3bc4 100644
--- a/docs/topics/search/searching.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/search/searching.rst
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ Promoted search results
 This functionality is provided by the :mod:`~wagtail.contrib.wagtailsearchpromotions` contrib module.
 
 
+.. _wagtailsearch_images_documents_custom_models:
+
 Searching Images, Documents and custom models
 =============================================