diff --git a/skimage/io/_plugins/freeimage_plugin.py b/skimage/io/_plugins/freeimage_plugin.py
index e78d5d4a..5d023909 100644
--- a/skimage/io/_plugins/freeimage_plugin.py
+++ b/skimage/io/_plugins/freeimage_plugin.py
@@ -55,19 +55,22 @@ def load_freeimage():
         try:
             freeimage = loader.LoadLibrary(lib)
             break
-        except Exception, e:
+        except Exception:
             if lib not in bare_libs:
                 # Don't record errors when it couldn't load the library from
                 # a bare name -- this fails often, and doesn't provide any
                 # useful debugging information anyway, beyond "couldn't find
                 # library..."
-                errors.append((lib, e))
+                # Get exception instance in Python 2.x/3.x compatible manner
+                e_type, e_value, e_tb = sys.exc_info()
+                del e_tb
+                errors.append((lib, e_value))
 
     if freeimage is None:
         if errors:
             # No freeimage library loaded, and load-errors reported for some
             # candidate libs
-            err_txt = ['%s:\n%s'%(l, e.message) for l, e in errors]
+            err_txt = ['%s:\n%s'%(l, str(e.message)) for l, e in errors]
             raise OSError('One or more FreeImage libraries were found, but '
                           'could not be loaded due to the following errors:\n'+
                           '\n\n'.join(err_txt))