Annie Leibovitz may lose control of her iconic images

Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz has until Sept. 8 to repay a $24 million loan, plus interest, or she could lose control of her photo copyrights and future photo shoots.

For decades, Annie Liebovitz has framed the famous in her lens and captured shots that are lasting images in the minds of many. Nude and pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair. A nude John Lennon draped around Yoko Ono on the cover of Rolling Stone. The Los Angeles Times describes some of Leibovitz’s work as “magazine covers that shook the world.” Now imagine those, and other, Liebovitz images transformed from fine-art, limited-editions to postcards or other mass marketed mediums. Leibovitz used her intellectual and real property to secure a $24 million loan from a New York art-finance company called Art Capital Group last year. On Tuesday, that loan, plus interest, is scheduled to be repaid. The L.A. Times reports that the collateral on the loan includes not only Liebovitz’s two homes but also, according to the lender, “Every photographic image ever taken by Ms. Leibovitz.” The deal struck between Leibovitz and Art Capital “could result in the outright sale of her photo copyrights to a party who might decide it's better to market her images in lots of 1,000, or on postcards, not the fine-art limited-edition approach she has embraced.” Moreover, according to the L.A. Times, Art Capital “serve as her exclusive agent through the loan period and two years after, meaning it would negotiate photo shoots she does outside her contracted ones for Vanity Fair and get a cut of her newly created work too.” Leibovitz is not commenting on the matter but colleagues indicate that she, like many artists, was more focused on the art rather than business side of photography. Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, told the L.A. Times, “Artists like her generally don't do it for the money. If they did they'd be working for AIG . . . " The 59-year-old, 6-foot-tall photographer is also facing $2 million in tax liens on her country estate, called Astor Barns, located on the Hudson River, and her town house in Greenwich Village. While the deadline to repay the loan is still in effect, Liebovitz’s attorneys reached an agreement with Art Capital to extend the date to reply to the lawsuit to Oct. 1. Leibovitz's spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik, told the L.A. Times, “They're having discussions . . . to resolve things.” For more information about the lawsuit, read Digital Journalist Bob Ewing's Aug. 1 story.