Annie Leibovitz rose to fame when she published her first photographs in Rolling Stone Magazine. It was there that she met many of the artists who later asked and commissioned her to photograph the covers and inner sleeves for their albums. John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Joan Armatrading, the Rolling Stones and Whoopi Goldberg, all of them asked her to make their photographs and many of these became world famous. Later on in her career she made some unfortunate financial choices and was left with a substantial debt of over 15 million.
In February 2009, Leibovitz borrowed US$15.5 million, after having experienced financial challenges, putting up several houses as well as the rights to all of her photographs as collateral. The New York Times noted that “one of the world’s most successful photographers essentially pawned every snap of the shutter she had made or will make until the loans are paid off,”[and that, despite a US$50 million archive, Leibovitz had a “long history of less than careful financial dealings” and “a recent series of personal issues” including the loss of her parents and the 2004 death of Sontag, as well as the addition of two children to her family, and controversial renovation of three Greenwich Village properties.
This overshadowed her carreer,in the last decade, but since 2010, her financial situation bettered with the help of Colony Capital. Leibovitz can now breath again freely and do what she is great in doing….making iconic photographs like the ones above. www.ftn-books.com has some publications on Leibovitz available at this moment.
