On Ubuntu I was missing the libpng-dev, libjpeg-dev (and in my case) libwebp-dev libraries, all gettable with apt-get.
Also once those libraries are installed, including --with-png-dir --with-jpeg-dir --with-webp-dir, without any values (i.e. =/dir) appeared to be valid ... though admittedly I didn't try without (in case the configure script autodetected them).