John David Leigh II (November 8, 1948 – May 19, 2004) was an American photographer and author, known for the cover photograph on

John Berendt John Berendt (born December 5, 1939) is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'', which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Biography Ber ...

's novel ''

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published in 1994 and follows the story of an antiques dealer on trial for the murder of a male prostitute. Subtitled ''A Savannah S ...

''. The photograph featured the ''

Bird Girl ''Bird Girl'' is a sculpture made in 1936 by Sylvia Shaw Judson in Lake Forest, Illinois. It was sculpted at Ragdale, her family's summer home, and achieved fame when it was featured on the cover of the 1994 non-fiction novel ''Midnight in t ...

'' statue from Bonaventure Cemetery in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

, where he is now buried. Leigh was a native of Savannah, and a graduate of the Savannah Country Day School and the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. Already well known locally as a portrait and documentary photographer, Leigh was commissioned by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

for the photograph. Leigh wrote and published five books on photography. His former photo gallery was a popular tourist attraction in the historic district of downtown Savannah.Aberjhani, "Bound Moments: Jack Leigh's Beautiful Southern Adventures" Leigh died May 19, 2004, in Savannah, of colon cancer.

Published works

* ''Oystering: A Way of Life'' ( with

James Dickey James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 January 19, 1997) was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966. He also received the Order of the South award. Dickey is best known for his n ...

and Charles L. Wyrick, Jr.; Carolina Art Association, June 1983) * ''Nets & Doors: Shrimping in Southern Waters'' (, Gibbs Smith Publishing, October 1, 1989) * ''Seaport: A Waterfront at Work'' (, Gibbs Smith Publishing, July 1, 1996) *
The Land I'm Bound To Photographs
' (, with

Pat Conroy Donald Patrick Conroy (October 26, 1945 – March 4, 2016) was an American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs; his books '' The Water is Wide'', ''The Lords of Discipline'', ''The Prince of Tides'' and '' The Great Santini'' w ...

; W.W. Norton & Company, Sept 2000) * ''The Ogeechee: A River and Its People'' (, Wormsloe Foundation Publications, April 28, 2004) * ''Ossabaw: Evocations of an Island'' (, with James Kilgo, Alan Campbell, and John Lane;

University of Georgia Press The University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is the university press of the University of Georgia, a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. It is the oldest and largest publishing house in Georgia and a ...

, April 28, 2004)

References

External links

The Land He's Bound To by John English

Jack Leigh Collection Hargrett Rare Books and Manuscript Library
1948 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American photographers Writers from Savannah, Georgia University of Georgia alumni Deaths from colorectal cancer Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state) {{US-photographer-stub