diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index 2007db8c94..e5cf0ae8c4 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 10.5.x.x (relative to 10.5.4.0)
 ========
 
+Fixes
+-----
 
+- OpenImageIOAlgo : Properly handle empty metadata values
 
 10.5.4.0 (relative to 10.5.3.0)
 ========
diff --git a/src/IECoreImage/OpenImageIOAlgo.cpp b/src/IECoreImage/OpenImageIOAlgo.cpp
index fea731d7f5..c41831b97e 100644
--- a/src/IECoreImage/OpenImageIOAlgo.cpp
+++ b/src/IECoreImage/OpenImageIOAlgo.cpp
@@ -584,7 +584,7 @@ IECore::DataPtr data( const OIIO::ParamValue &value )
 			{
 				if ( type.arraylen == 0 )
 				{
-					return new StringData( static_cast<const ustring *>( value.data() )->c_str() );
+					return new StringData( static_cast<const ustring *>( value.data() )->string() );
 				}
 				else
 				{