diff --git a/dlib/CMakeLists.txt b/dlib/CMakeLists.txt
index 71e680c86..8d897e27f 100644
--- a/dlib/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/dlib/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -70,6 +70,8 @@ if (NOT TARGET dlib)
    "Disable this if you don't want to link against libpng" )
    set (DLIB_LINK_WITH_LIBJPEG_STR
    "Disable this if you don't want to link against libjpeg" )
+   set (DLIB_USE_EXTERNAL_LIBJPEG_STR
+   "Enable if this if you want to enforce linking to an external libjpeg on Max OS X systems" )
    set (DLIB_LINK_WITH_SQLITE3_STR
    "Disable this if you don't want to link against sqlite3" )
    #set (DLIB_LINK_WITH_FFTW_STR "Disable this if you don't want to link against fftw" )
@@ -82,6 +84,7 @@ if (NOT TARGET dlib)
    option(DLIB_USE_LAPACK ${DLIB_USE_LAPACK_STR} ON)
    option(DLIB_LINK_WITH_LIBPNG ${DLIB_LINK_WITH_LIBPNG_STR} ON)
    option(DLIB_LINK_WITH_LIBJPEG ${DLIB_LINK_WITH_LIBJPEG_STR} ON)
+   option(DLIB_USE_EXTERNAL_LIBJPEG ${DLIB_USE_EXTERNAL_LIBJPEG_STR} OFF)
    option(DLIB_LINK_WITH_SQLITE3 ${DLIB_LINK_WITH_SQLITE3_STR} ON)
    #option(DLIB_LINK_WITH_FFTW ${DLIB_LINK_WITH_FFTW_STR} ON)
 
@@ -279,7 +282,7 @@ if (NOT TARGET dlib)
             set(CMAKE_REQUIRED_LIBRARIES ${JPEG_LIBRARY})
             CHECK_FUNCTION_EXISTS(jpeg_read_header LIBJPEG_IS_GOOD)
          endif()
-         if (JPEG_FOUND AND LIBJPEG_IS_GOOD AND NOT APPLE)
+         if (JPEG_FOUND AND LIBJPEG_IS_GOOD AND (NOT APPLE OR DLIB_USE_EXTERNAL_LIBJPEG))
             include_directories(${JPEG_INCLUDE_DIR})
             set (dlib_needed_libraries ${dlib_needed_libraries} ${JPEG_LIBRARY})
          else()