Tuesday, August 18, 2009

More than I Financially Wanted to Know

Only once in my life have I cared enough about a photograph to check out who took the picture.

It was a photograph in Rolling Stone many years ago. It was, of course, by Annie Leibovitz.

Since that time, I've attended exhibitions of her photos in New York City, Paris and Seattle. And I always look for her work in Vanity Fair.

I marvel at how she looks at people. And how she gets them to look back at us.

But great artists are not always great at managing their money. Instead, greatness brings its own issues, including in Annie's case, addiction, perfectionism, and no one to put the brakes on when necessary.

New York Magazine takes a long look at Annie Leibovitz's finances and gives us a scary portrait of a sixty year old artist just past her zenith as well as an older parent of an eight year old daughter and four year old twins, who is now near bankruptcy.

It saddens me to see the real life warts on people whose art I admire. Not that I don't think Leibovitz brought her financial ills upon herself--clearly she did. But it gives me no joy to see her brought down financially.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow - that's something. I admire her work, too. I'm going to check out that article.

A.M.B.A.

Miss M said...

I haven't read the article but I did hear a story that said she had already borrowed against all work she will produce in her lifetime. She has a loan on photographs that don't exist, she has mortgaged her entire future. Crazy, and sad.

Bouncing Back said...

I read about it in the New York Times a few weeks ago. Very scary to have "signed away" so much of your own life.

Carol said...

Oh, how sad. I've been a fan of hers for quite some time, too....I'm not sure I understand it all, but it really made me see that even someone as amazing as her is not immune from financial troubles....