This is commentary on: For Annie Leibovitz, a Fuzzy Financial Picture – NYTimes.com.

I’m ashamed to admit that for many years, I dismissed the name Annie Liebovitz as fluff celeb photography. This was before I got into photography myself. To be sure, she does some really flamboyant work for Vanity Fair, but she is a very, very, very good eye. (Duh)

Now comes word that she is in a spot of bother with her finances, a twenty-four million line of credit is due in a month. And, yes the worst contingent is in play: She put her negatives up as collateral.

The New York Times article is very lacking on particulars — nobody can seem to say why she owes so much money. She owns a few homes, and travels. That’s about it.But, who knows.

One key rumor though is that the love of her life Susan Sontag had left her a large inheritance, which was taxed like crazy because they were unable to marry.  If true, that’s a tragic twist of affairs. But, with a larger perspective one can’t feel too much sympathy with someone not managing that much money in  smarter manner.

Should she lose rights to her own work? Yes, she absolutely should if that’s the agreement she signed in order to spend twenty-four million dollars on whatever it is she spent it on. Talented people deserve to make a living off their work — but our society is too lopsided, awarding the top few percent an outsized piece of the pie. The celebrity worship that she profited from is a big part of why we produce so little of real value.

I stop short of saying she contributed to celebrity worship. Her work is worth whatever someone wishes to pay for it. She takes wonderful images of notable people, and I am in awe of her talent.  But, I do believe she benefits from an aspect of society that does not advance humanity.  And, had she perhaps lived a little more within her means, she’d not risk the loss of her creative work. This tragedy is, unfortunately, of her own making. Live by the dollar, lose by it as well.

Access Hollywood listed their Top Ten Most Iconic Annie Leibovitz Photos. One of those, and one that wowed me was her portrait of Queen Elizabeth.

Here she is shooting Keith Richards for Louis Vuitton earlier this year: