Jack Leigh, photographer of 'Midnight' cover dies at home

<p>Jack Leigh, the photographer whose haunting cover image helped propel the novel "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" to international acclaim, died of cancer Wednesday at his home.</p><p>Leigh was born in 1948. His work lovingly documented the coastal region he called home.</p><p>He was the author of five books of photography: "Oystering: A Way of Life;" "The Ogeechee: A River and Its People;" "Nets & Doors: Shrimping in Southern Waters;" "Seaport: A Waterfront at Work" and "The Land I'm Bound To."</p><p>But his most widely recognized image was a shot of The Bird Girl, a statue that for decades stood in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery.</p><p>The photo graced the cover of John Berendt's 1993 best seller, and the image became so well-known that cemetery officials eventually had to move the statue to a museum because it was drawing too many tourists, who sometimes trampled neighboring grave sites.</p><p>Leigh began his work in photography in 1972, after studying at the University of Georgia.</p>