diff --git a/bookwyrm/activitypub/base_activity.py b/bookwyrm/activitypub/base_activity.py
index f6a3f9b1e..62fce70b2 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/activitypub/base_activity.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/activitypub/base_activity.py
@@ -227,7 +227,8 @@ def image_attachments_formatter(images_json):
     ''' deserialize a list of images '''
     attachments = []
     for image in images_json:
-        attachment = models.Attachment()
+        caption = image.get('name')
+        attachment = models.Attachment(caption=caption)
         image_field = image_formatter(image)
         attachment.image.save(*image_field, save=False)
         attachments.append(attachment)
diff --git a/bookwyrm/migrations/0012_attachment.py b/bookwyrm/migrations/0012_attachment.py
index 2af545a86..495538517 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/migrations/0012_attachment.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/migrations/0012_attachment.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Generated by Django 3.0.7 on 2020-11-24 17:46
+# Generated by Django 3.0.7 on 2020-11-24 19:39
 
 from django.db import migrations, models
 import django.db.models.deletion
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ class Migration(migrations.Migration):
                 ('updated_date', models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)),
                 ('remote_id', models.CharField(max_length=255, null=True)),
                 ('image', models.ImageField(blank=True, null=True, upload_to='status/')),
+                ('caption', models.TextField(blank=True, null=True)),
                 ('status', models.ForeignKey(on_delete=django.db.models.deletion.CASCADE, related_name='attachments', to='bookwyrm.Status')),
             ],
             options={
diff --git a/bookwyrm/models/status.py b/bookwyrm/models/status.py
index dcf4c4715..6f534f506 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/models/status.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/models/status.py
@@ -159,6 +159,7 @@ class Attachment(BookWyrmModel):
         related_name='attachments'
     )
     image = models.ImageField(upload_to='status/', null=True, blank=True)
+    caption = models.TextField(null=True, blank=True)
 
 
 class GeneratedNote(Status):
diff --git a/bookwyrm/templates/snippets/status_content.html b/bookwyrm/templates/snippets/status_content.html
index eac372711..834549ea2 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/templates/snippets/status_content.html
+++ b/bookwyrm/templates/snippets/status_content.html
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
     {% if status.attachments %}
     <div>
         {% for attachment in status.attachments.all %}
-        <img src="/images/{{ attachment.image }}">
+        <img src="/images/{{ attachment.image }}" alt="{{ attachment.caption }}">
         {% endfor %}
     </div>
     {% endif %}
diff --git a/bw-dev b/bw-dev
index 22ca9412e..6d74924ff 100755
--- a/bw-dev
+++ b/bw-dev
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ case "$1" in
         ;;
     migrate)
         execweb python manage.py rename_app fedireads bookwyrm
-        execweb python manage.py migrate
+        execweb python manage.py "$@"
         ;;
     bash)
         execweb bash