Monat: September 2009
Annie Leibovitz losing her copyright to her lifes work
clipped from: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk
Yesterday Annie Leibovitz was on the brink of losing her copyright to her life’s work after defaulting on a $24 million loan. Could it be good for her?
There is something symbolic about Leibovitz’s financial downfall. Her stylised celebrity portraits will forever be associated with the excesses of the boom years. And just as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, RBS and many other erstwhile titans of the global capitalist world have been cast low through their culture of excess, it seems that Leibovitz succumbed to a culture of breathtaking debts that spiralled out of control. Now, on the brink of 60, she has won the ignominious distinction of becoming the art world’s first high-profile victim of the recession.
Immersed in a world of celebrity, entitlement and excess, it is easy to see how Leibovitz ended up where she is today.
Leibovitz’s financial meltdown presents us with a fresh reflection of the times in which we live.