Annie Leibovitz is as famous as the people she photographs but now the genius behind the lens is close to financial ruin a victim, some say, of her own relentless artistic ambition.
Among the qualities making Leibovitz, 59, the most sought after portrait photographer in the world are legendary perfectionism and the pouring of resources into lavish sets.
During the course of her long career, nothing has been too extreme in Leibovitz's pursuit of the perfect picture.
She put former action hero and present California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on top of a mountain, submerged black actress Whoopi Goldberg in a bath of milk and closed France's Versailles palace to shoot Kirsten Dunst posing as Marie-Antoinette.
Circus animals, fire, aeroplanes she was rarely denied a requested prop, however seemingly outrageous.
That kind of imagination, and the stylised, hyper-realistic portraits she produced, had a long line of celebrities, from Hollywood stars to the Queen beating a path to Leibovitz's door.
Yet behind a facade of unlimited financial means, Leibovitz was spending her way into a nightmare.
In what now appears as a disastrous decision to raise funds, Leibovitz took a $US24million ($A28.87million) loan from Art Capital Group in effect a high-end pawn broker in December 2008 using her own photographs as collateral.
That debt is due on September 8 and if she can't pay up, she could lose her life's work.
ACG, which specialises in making loans to owners of high value art works, is unlikely to adopt a soft line.
ACG spokesman Montieth Illingworth said, Leibovitz must ''comply with the sales agreement she signed authorising Art Capital to sell the fine art and real estate assets and to pay the invoices that are due.''
The over-leveraged photographer not only risks losing her photo archives, which The New York Times estimates could be worth $A60.15 million, but also her house in the trendy Greenwich Village district of Manhattan and a second home outside the city.
If she is forced to declare bankruptcy, it will then be up to the courts to decide how to distribute the assets.
Banking giant Goldman Sachs entered the fray last week with a claim to own part of Leibovitz's debt.
ACG disputes that, but says Goldman Sachs could be invited to bid for the loan.
Leibovitz's career has few parallels.
Her famous shoots include a nude portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono just before the Beatle was murdered and nude and pregnant actress Demi Moore.
Despite moving in such glamorous circles, Leibovitz has never been known for having a knack for finance.
When she was hired to shoot ads for American Express in the 1980s, it emerged she had been previously turned down by the company when applying for a credit card.
The weekly New York Magazine published a lengthy article recounting her perfectionism at work and her lavish personal taste, including an apartment on the banks of the Seine, in Paris, to please her lover, writer Susan Sontag, who died of leukemia aged 71, in 2004. AFP
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