Declare A Value As Object?

In C# we do

byte[] imageData = new byte[];
SqlCom.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@ImageData", (object)imageData));

which makes the imageData variable as an object.But How do i do this in Visual Basic??

Dim imageData As byte() = new Byte()
SqlCom.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@ImageData", ?? ) <-----What Should i do here?

My code is like this

conn.Open()
Dim cmd As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand("SELECT PhotoID From Photo " & str8 & " And Photo = @Photo", conn)
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Photo", CType(Photo, Object))[code]....

It comes out error like this:The data types image and varbinary are incompatible in the equal to operator. What should I do?