  The history of the occupations "author" and "photographer" provides an
insightful perspective on copyright and creativity. The concept of the romantic
author, associated with personal creative genius, gained prominence in the
eighteenth century. However, in the U.S. in 1900 only about three thousand
persons professed their occupation to be "author." Self-professed
"photographers" were then about ten times as numerous as authors. Being a
photographer was associated with manufacturing and depended only on mastering
technical skills and making a living. Being an author, in contrast, was an
elite status associated with science and literature. Across the twentieth
century, the number of writers and authors grew much more rapidly than the
number of photographers. The relative success of writers and authors in
creating jobs seems to have depended not on differences in copyright or
possibilities for self-production, but on greater occupational innovation.
Creativity in organizing daily work is an important form of creativity.
