Not even the super rich are safe from the flailing economic climate. Famous celebrity photographer Annie Lebovitz may be forced to file for involuntary bankruptcy very soon. She is apparently in a whole lot of trouble, which maybe surprising to some as she is one of the most famous photographers in the world, with a salary from Vanity Fair alone reportedly a cool US$2 million a month.

Despite this hefty pay packet (and that doesn’t include anything else she more than likely has going on), she is swimming in debt. She has been sued left and right by former employees; lighting company B2Pro Lighting sued the photographer for US$392,036 she owed them in rental and damage fees as well as Art Department Creative Services suing Leibovitz for US$400,000 for their unpaid services during a shoot for Disney.

A lawyer for B2Pro, told a publication that the company is considering filing an involuntary bankruptcy petition against Leibovitz; “we haven’t filed anything yet, but we are doing our due diligence,” he said. “We’re in touch with Annie’s people and they are cooperating, so hopefully it won’t come to that.”

At the end of last year, she was forced to borrow US$15.5 million, using her Greenwich Village townhouses and the rights to all her photographs as collateral to pay off mounting debt. She started piling up debt with the extensive renovations of two adjacent West 11th Street townhouses, which undermined the foundation of a third, forcing her neighbours to evacuate to a pricey hotel and to sue her.

In November, a stylist at the Art Department Creative Services who’d worked with Leibovitz on her big-budget Disney campaign featuring stars like Scarlett Johansson sued her for US$400,000 for allegedly unpaid bills. The case is pending.

Such a sad story because she is one of the best photographers of our generation and has taken some of the most iconic photographs in the past 50 years.