More On the Financial Predicament of Annie Leibovitz

We've been hearing a lot this past year about Annie Leibovitz and her financial fiasco. 

Arguably one of the greatest portrait artists of our time, Miz Leibovitz has had a super-sized career spanning four decades, creating many of the most iconic portraits of celebrities and pop-culture personalities ever snapped. Until very recently, most of us assumed that Annie must be wallowing in fat wads of cash given the rumours about her reported fees, editorial deals & contracts with the likes of Vogue, Conde Nast, Rolling Stone, American Express and others. Last year it was disclosed that exactly the opposite was true when a stylist, lighting and rental houses and other vendors began suing Annie for non-payment of tabs racking up to $700,000 plus. Then, the reports began surfacing that Mizz Leibovitz was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and had pawned her complete works both past & future to survive economically. 

For the past year, we've been provided tantalizing glimpses into some of the causes of her financial problems but never much of a complete picture as to how this could possibly happen to, ostensibly, the most recognized photographer of the day.

This weekend, New York Magazine, published a rather detailed accounting of Annie's woes, painting the most complete picture of the her impending financial ruin to date. I also note that the article quotes the sister of Leibovitz's long time love, writer/intellectual Susan Sontag's sister, Maui resident Judith Cohen. You can find the complete article here.

Thanks go out to photographer/blogger Andrew Hetherington of the famed What's the Jackanory blog for posting the link, along with an interesting portrait of Mizz Leibovitz by John Keatley, in this morning's entry.

End Of The Week Wrap-Up

Yesterday's efforts involved making architectural photographs of an historic old 1920's mansion & estate originally built as the home of one of Maui's founding missionary families. To paraphrase author James Michener, those missionary families came to the islands to do good and ended up doing very well.

Since the mid-1990's, the estate has been owned by the family of the late William E. Simon, former U.S. Secretary of State during three years of Nixon's tenure in the White House. The property has seen several renovations over the years, a major interior renovation completed just a few years ago.

Situated on 42 lush acres in Haiku, the property includes guest & staff quarters, a lovely pool, orchard, gazebo and magnificent rolling lawns and gardens filled with trees of banyan, eucalyptus and exotic palm.I have driven past the place almost daily for over ten years and always wondered what was up there. Unfortunately, I am unable to share pics from the shoot until the commissioning entity, Maui No Ka Oi Magazine publishes the work.

Chef extraordinaire David Paul Johnson has returned to Maui and has just opened a brand new restaurant on Front Street in Lahaina. David Paul's Island Grill features and ever-evolving and daily changing menu of exquisite island cuisine, complete with signature DP southwest flourishes. All reports from the first week of operations is that the place is doing it right. I head up there this evening for a meeting & scout with DP himself, prior to an all day shoot scheduled for Monday. I'll report my own finding as soon as time permits.

Andrew Hetherington of What's the Jackanory? blog fame has posted video of a new portfolio by one of my favorite photographers, Dan Winters. Thanks to Andrew's enabling the video to be embedded, I have added it below. Great work by a great photographer.

OK... that's all the news for now. Have a great weekend one & all. Over & out.

Dan Winters new book from andrew hetherington on Vimeo.

Friday Links

The past week or so has seen a real uptick in business around these parts, hence the relative inactivity here on the blog. There has been a multitude of requests for estimates, proposals and potential assignment work... some of it signed off on and ready for pre-production, some still in the initial bidding phase with the ripe potential for coming to fruition. All good news!

However, rather than spend these few moments at the keyboard shamelessly reveling in my new found potential for continued prosperity, I thought I would use this time to provide you, dear reader, with some links to some of the wonderful imagery, information and fun that has popped up recently on the photo blogosphere.

Andrew Hetherington is a New York editorial photographer, all around witty guy and tireless proponent of all things photographic. In addition to his work, Mr. H also publishes one of the most informative & entertaining photoblogs you'll find. His What's the Jackanory blog makes for most entertaining reading, often includes stunning eye-candy produced by the mad irishman and lists a blogroll of the best and most popular photoblogs ever to be found.

Andrew's entry for today details his attendance to the invite-only gathering of New York photographer's Nutopia Forum, hosted infrequently by acclaimed celebrity portraitist Platon. Last evening's gathering featured a lecture & slideshow by the great Jim Marshall, a man who's career has spanned over 50 years and has created some of the most iconic photographs from the world of rock & roll ever to see publication. Andrew has even posted video from the event and it well worth a watch (caution... a bit long but worthwhile nevertheless. You can find it here.

Over at Conscientious, the weblog published by fine-art photography connoisseur Jorg Colberg, stunning images from the 2008 war in the Russian Republic of Georgia by Rena Effendi is on display. Find it here. 

An interesting discussion of the topic of "fair use" is currently taking place over at the blog published by the editors at Photo District News. The now iconic Obama "Hope" campaign poster created by street/grafitti artist Shepard Fairey apparently began it's life based on a photograph by former AP photographer Mannie Garcia. AP is now claiming copyright infringement. You can find it here.

OK... that should keep you busy over the coming weekend.