Remember when CNN used to be respectable, before it started competing with FOX for viewership who prefer headlines like “Dog Poops in Church, Exorcised”? Sometimes I worry that with its financial problems, the New York Times might be slowly tip-toeing in that populist direction…but I guess this is in the Style section, so maybe I’m worrying over nothing:
Annie Leibovitz, one of photography’s most recognizable names, is the focus of a gossipy article today. Even though she “has a seven-figure salary from Vanity Fair and commands tens of thousands of dollars a day from commercial clients like Louis Vuitton,” she’s being sued for non-payment on a $24 million dollar line of credit from Art Capital Group. The finance firm has apparently been shopping around Annie’s photo archive, which has always been held tightly by the artist, to the tune of $50 million– the Times snootily predicts (and rightfully so– THAT’S my NYTimes!) her portraits of celebrities will be “found on postcards in Times Square” as a result.
Annie’s otherworldly, Lewis Carroll-inspired photograph pictured above is available at New York’s Danziger Projects.
I’d like to see Art Capital Group and my student loan administrator, Sallie Mae, get in a fight. I’m guessing Sallie Mae would win because their employees are aggressive assholes on the phone. Although, selling a living artist’s body of work to the highest bidder is pretty low.
