diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6126bb40..fa9b7e21 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,16 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 
 The format is (loosely) based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/) and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
+## [Unreleased]
+
+### Added
+
+- A note about full recursion to the `--max-depth` help text
+
+### Fixed
+
+- Item messages are now included even if `max_depth is None`
+
 ## [v2.5.0] - 2022-03-10
 ### Changed
 
diff --git a/stac_validator/stac_validator.py b/stac_validator/stac_validator.py
index 60aa50b2..202c12c2 100644
--- a/stac_validator/stac_validator.py
+++ b/stac_validator/stac_validator.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
     "--max-depth",
     "-m",
     type=int,
-    help="Maximum depth to traverse when recursing. Ignored if `recursive == False`.",
+    help="Maximum depth to traverse when recursing. Omit this argument to get full recursion. Ignored if `recursive == False`.",
 )
 @click.option(
     "-v", "--verbose", is_flag=True, help="Enables verbose output for recursive mode."
diff --git a/stac_validator/validate.py b/stac_validator/validate.py
index e5deda2c..2c97d7b9 100644
--- a/stac_validator/validate.py
+++ b/stac_validator/validate.py
@@ -248,7 +248,7 @@ def recursive_validator(self, stac_type: str):
                     if self.log != "":
                         self.message.append(message)
                     if (
-                        self.max_depth and self.max_depth < 5
+                        not self.max_depth or self.max_depth < 5
                     ):  # TODO this should be configurable, correct?
                         self.message.append(message)
                     if self.verbose is True:
diff --git a/tests/test_recursion.py b/tests/test_recursion.py
index ebb2a825..7de941d9 100644
--- a/tests/test_recursion.py
+++ b/tests/test_recursion.py
@@ -297,3 +297,10 @@ def test_recursion_collection_local_2_v1rc2():
             "valid_stac": True,
         },
     ]
+
+
+def test_recursion_without_max_depth():
+    stac_file = "tests/test_data/v100/catalog.json"
+    stac = stac_validator.StacValidate(stac_file, recursive=True)
+    stac.run()
+    assert len(stac.message) == 6