How did Helen Levitt pay the bills?

I just got a copy of Ms. Levitt's new book: "One, two, three, More." Many beautiful image, (although not necessarily her most famous ones).

I've always loved her work, but it seems to me that it isn't the sort of thing that one could live on.

I wonder how she paid the daily bills?

Thanks,

Wilhelm

Wilhelm, I once heard her answer this question at a talk in Manhattan back in the eighties. She was a commercial photographer with a bunch of magazine clients - a source of revenue that was common in those days. Indeed, she said that the style of her street photography was something that clients asked for when they gave her assignments. Indeed, her work for fashion magazines in the late forties and fifties so strongly resembles her personal work that they're often shown side-by-side at exhibitions.

She also worked in the movie industry. She was an Oscar nominated screen writer and film editor.