diff --git a/lpips/__init__.py b/lpips/__init__.py
index 9dc89877..89e5bba2 100755
--- a/lpips/__init__.py
+++ b/lpips/__init__.py
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ def load_image(path):
         import cv2
         return cv2.imread(path)[:,:,::-1]
     else:
+        import matplotlib.pyplot as plt        
         img = (255*plt.imread(path)[:,:,:3]).astype('uint8')
 
     return img