How did they make it work…

Joel Meyerowitz, Garry Winnogrand, Saul Leiter, Fred Herzog, Henry Wessel Jr., Helen Levitt, Mary Ellen Mark, Joel Sternfeld, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Todd Papageorge, John Divola…the list goes on. It occurs to me, I’ve never once read or heard an interview with one of the greats where they speak about the financial adversity and adversity in general they faced in devoting their lives to this art form. Photography is all consuming, now more than ever before—but it had to be like that then too? The most I’ve ever seen is Walker Evans talking about how he couldn’t pay rent for a year and crashed with Berenice Abbott. Anyone have any good anecdotes or interviews they could link? Garry Winnogrand must have been so broke…he said he shot 7-800 rolls of film a year. Obviously it was much cheaper then but still. I’m just looking for something to make me feel less awful about being 15 years into this insane obsession/disease and financially having nothing to show for it.