The Land I'm Bound To: Photographs [Hardcover]

Jack Leigh (Author), Pat Conroy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000

This retrospective volume places Jack Leigh in the company of other documentary giants such as Walker Evans and Dorothea Lang.

While technology and urban sprawl have transformed much of our country in the last half of the twentieth century, Jack Leigh has been quietly documenting the people and the landscape of the Southeastern coast, a region steeped in history and tradition. The Land I'm Bound To is the photographer's tribute to the richly diverse culture of his native region. His subjects range from solitary oystermen working the fog-shrouded salt marshes of South Carolina to shrimp fishermen at sea to the swamps and marsh flats along Georgia's Ogeechee River, as well as the massive cranes and freighters of Savannah's busy port. Here, Leigh is both inclusive and expansive, offering some of his most memorable images as well as recent work that synthesizes the beauty and emotional grip the South has on many of us. 200 duotone photographs

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Novelist Pat Conroy fondly introduces this album of Jack Leigh's distinguished photographs by writing that the "South he captures is the one I have lived in my whole life and is as familiar to me as my thumbprint, yet I feel as though I am seeing my native land for the first time when I study Jack's uncanny yet perfectly composed and cunning images. He cannot raise his camera without telling me about a South I never knew was there." Leigh's most famous photograph is the one of a Savannah cemetery statue, which graced the front cover of John Berendt's wildly popular book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994). But all his shots evoke place and mood with heart-gripping force. His black-and-white images, at once softly textured and immaculately focused, emphasize the beauty of isolation, personal and geographic; but other shots celebrate the ties of community. An ordinary intersection in a small town holds our fascination; a fog-covered body of water brings out the romantic in the most hardened of hearts. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Jack Leigh's previous photography books include Oystering: A Way of Life and Seaport: A Waterfront at Work. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393049310
• ISBN-13: 978-0393049312
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 10.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,442,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Treasure, October 20, 2000

By 

John - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Land I'm Bound To: Photographs (Hardcover)

Anyone who has visited or even just read about the Southeastern coast will be drawn in and held spellbound by Jack Leigh's photographs. The emotion and connection that Mr. Leigh feels for his home comes flooding out of the pages in the form of places, people and light.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Leigh twice. Once 5 years ago when my husband and I stumbled on his gallery, and again when I brought my mother back to Savannah for the first time in 70 years. Both times Mr. Leigh was not only gracious but full of the stories about each one of his masterpieces. He is for real, folks! It is easy to see how he forms the relationships that produce his photographs. Having seen many of the original pieces in Mr. Leigh's gallery, I can atest to the quality of the printing and reproduction. Care was taken with this book.

One final word, pay particular attention to the work entitled "Cold Mellons." It is not only my favorite, but Mr. Leigh's first photograph. There is a whole story about how that piece almost didn't survive developing. Some things are just meant to be.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars breathtaking photographs, September 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Land I'm Bound To: Photographs (Hardcover)

I was drawn to this book because I am a huge Pat Conroy fan - I wasn't disappointed. All the images allowed me to understand the area and the people - they are beautiful photographs.