John David Leigh II (November 8, 1948 – May 19, 2004) was an American photographer and author, known for the cover photograph on
John Berendt's novel ''
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil''. The photograph featured the ''
Bird Girl'' statue from
Bonaventure Cemetery
Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery became famous when it was featured in the 1994 novel ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' by John Berendt, ...
in
Savannah, Georgia, where he is now buried.
Leigh was a native of Savannah, and a graduate of the
Savannah Country Day School
The Savannah Country Day School (SCDS, Country Day) is an independent college preparatory school founded in 1955 in Savannah, Georgia, United States. The co-educational school serves students from pre-kindergarten through to twelfth grade, and h ...
and the
University of Georgia. Already well known locally as a portrait and documentary photographer, Leigh was commissioned by
Random House 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 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;
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, April 28, 2004)
References
External links
The Land He's Bound To by John EnglishJack 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 in the United States
Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state)
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