Laravel 5.1 Restful API to access imaged stored in storage/app

I have a restful api that needs to access images stored in the storage/app folder in my app. The API publishes data to a mobile app client that uses angular.js
I understand that ideally I should be using Amazon S3 or a similar service. But for now I need to access files stored in the storage/app. Can someone please advise how to go about it? I am not using any of the laravel views.

Thanks,

via Chebli Mohamed