arts. writing. culture.

How and why… and, seriously, how… can Annie Leibovitz, brilliant mind of our time, have encountered so much trouble in recent times?  I’ve been reading up on the photographer-elite’s recent financial and legal struggles through her whole ordeal and can’t help but be baffled.  With a powerhouse team like her and partner Susan Sontag, I rendered them untouchable.  Until now.  With Susan now no longer with us, it seems that Leibovitz’s life has taken a nosedive and I can only hope that she’ll recover swiftly.

Thank goodness for her, things are starting to look up.  After a grueling and all-but-life-threatening financial battle over a $24 million loan that held the rights to her work on a very fine line, a ruling several days ago stated that Annie Leibovitz remains the owner of her photography.  It is reported that she has extended the conditions on loan repayments to Art Capital Group.

From celebrities on magazine covers to artistic fashion shoots, countless iconic photographs can be attributed to Leibovitz including the Rolling Stone cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken the same day that Lennon was later killed.  And now more recently, being sued by 2 vendors, she was at a $700,000+ risk and forced to possibly forfeit the rights to her world-renowned catalogue of work, putting her further into debt.  After several years consisting of these financial issues along with the losses of her lifelong partner and both of her parents, things haven’t been looking up.

Still, the recent good news of her case and her Lifetime Achievement Award at International Center of Photography last year (and the fact that she can still create juicy controversy, even over a 15 year old) prove that she hasn’t been overlooked.  Now that’s talent.  A look at some of the culturally influential work of Leibovitz’s past.

*All credit and copyrights of the following images, of course, belong to Annie Leibovitz and are only displayed here to display her amazing catalogue of work!