Annie Leibovitz reflects on photography, debt and death

CBS' Katie Couric, left, and Annie Leibovitz talk about Leibovitz's experiences as a photographer as she is interviewed in a packed Terrace Theater Tuesday morning during The Women's Conference 2009 in Long Beach, Calif. Photo by Steven Georges/Press-Telegram

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric drew out celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz in a frank, funny and occasionally melancholy conversation at the Women's Conference today at the Long Beach Convention Center. Leibovitz reflected on her art, her financial problems, the deaths of her partner and parents, and her experiences photographing some of the most recognizable people in the world.

Hinting at what probably would be good advice for the hundreds of women in the audience, or anyone else for that matter, Leibovitz explained her financial troubles that have now put the rights to her entire body of work at risk. She said she concentrated on her work her entire career.

"I never paid attention too much or took care of finance. I left it to other people," Leibovitz said. "Those days are over."

Leibovitz has failed to pay back a $24 million loan for which she put up the copyrights to her iconic photographs as collateral. For four decades, Leibovitz has photographed rock stars, actors, politicians, athletes and royalty, producing historic photos such as one for Rolling Stone of a nude John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken the day before Lennon was killed.

The debt was only one of several obstacles that Leibovitz has had to confront over the past five years, as her parents and her longtime partner, writer Susan Sontag, all died.

Those final years with her loved ones, and even their final days on Earth and Sontag's battle with cancer, all became part of Leibovitz's photographic repertoire. She talked today about her mother's reluctance to be photographed because she didn't want to look old.

"I found myself crying behind the camera," Leibovitz said.

Her father's death wasn't as hard to confront as Sontag's, she said.

"He died in his wife's arms," Leibovitz said. "It was a good death."

But she said she wouldn't want her father to see her going through her financial struggles today.

"I have to say, I'm really glad my father's not alive right now," Leibovitz said.

"Do you think he'd be mad at you," Couric asked.

"He always worried about me," Leibovitz replied.

Photographing her beloved Susan took more strength, she said. Leibovitz said she didn't

photograph Sontag until she was nearing death, though Sontag encouraged her to do so because she knew it was what Leibovitz loved. Leibovitz shared some of those photos with the audience today, offering a rare privilege to the crowd. She said she rarely displays or discusses the Sontag photos because of the emotions they still evoke in her, yet they are dear to her.

"I'm so lucky to have my photographs," Leibovitz said.