diff --git a/api/Dockerfile b/api/Dockerfile
index 130606b411a921dcd1e9106a6d13aa75915b670c..0363303682968a95630400e649dbf7ee500efd68 100644
--- a/api/Dockerfile
+++ b/api/Dockerfile
@@ -19,20 +19,9 @@ RUN \
     libffi-dev         \
     make         \
     zlib-dev           \
-    openldap-dev \ 
-    jpeg-dev \
-    zlib-dev \
-    freetype-dev \
-    lcms2-dev \
-    openjpeg-dev \
-    tiff-dev \
-    tk-dev \
-    tcl-dev \
-    harfbuzz-dev \
-    fribidi-dev \
+    openldap-dev \
     && \
     \
-    \
     ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python
 
 RUN mkdir /requirements
@@ -40,6 +29,9 @@ COPY ./requirements/base.txt /requirements/base.txt
 # hack around https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/6158#issuecomment-456619072
 ENV PIP_DOWNLOAD_CACHE=/noop/
 RUN \
+    echo 'fixing requirements file for alpine' && \
+    sed -i '/Pillow/d' /requirements/base.txt && \
+    \
     echo 'installing pip requirements' && \
     pip3 install --upgrade pip && \
     pip3 install setuptools wheel && \
diff --git a/api/requirements/base.txt b/api/requirements/base.txt
index 9cdbb477d1b669d099e7583cec586a1e2bb30293..b1921a8f7369def7029d797fb7bc22961f684165 100644
--- a/api/requirements/base.txt
+++ b/api/requirements/base.txt
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ djangorestframework>=3.10,<3.11
 djangorestframework-jwt>=1.11,<1.12
 pendulum>=2,<3
 persisting-theory>=0.2,<0.3
-django-versatileimagefield>=1.10,<1.11
+django-versatileimagefield>=2.0,<2.1
 django-filter>=2.1,<2.2
 django-rest-auth>=0.9,<0.10
 ipython>=7,<8