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The worldwide spread of Windows XP means that he has seen his own work in some far-flung places. Anywhere on this planet right now, if you stop somebody on the street and you show somebody that photograph, they're going to say 'I've seen that somewhere, I recognise that'."Īlthough there can never be a true indication of how many people have seen Bliss, Chuck estimates it is in the billions. When we had computers on our desk, that was on the screen'. "When you are 90 years old, somewhere a photograph like Bliss will appear and you will say 'I remember that. "I think it's going to be around forever," he says. So what is the future for Bliss, the photo that remains inevitably tied to the OS?
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Microsoft will end support, software updates and security patches for Windows XP on 8 April. Unlike images, operating systems have a use-by date. You can see the recreated version here on his Photoshelter page. Just for fun, Chuck has recreated Bliss entirely in Photoshop, made up of elements from his other photographs. It has not been touched." Microsoft did, however, crop the image for the desktop configuration and pumped up the green of the rolling hill. "It's the real deal, it's near where I live, and what you see is what you get. Some of us think that it was taken not far from Microsoft headquarters in Washington'." Chuck continues: "'Most of us in the engineering department think that it was Photoshopped. 'We're just curious about where that photograph was made'," read the email. "Several years after came out, an email came to me from one of the engineers, somebody within Microsoft. He still doesn't know how Microsoft found the photo, whether through keywords or by typing in phrases like "rolling green hills". While Chuck can't reveal how much he was paid due to a non-disclosure agreement, it was one of the largest amounts ever paid for a single photograph. Today, there are over 100 million images in the database.īliss was purchased by Microsoft for an undisclosed sum. The location of Bliss today.ĭespite what many people might think, the original frame of Bliss was completely unaltered and unedited by Chuck when he submitted it to Corbis, the stock photo and image licensing service founded by Bill Gates in 1989.Ĭorbis - which means woven basket in Latin - had maybe 50 photographers on file when Chuck submitted Bliss. For the curious, you can click here to explore the area. Today, Bliss looks very different to how it did in the late 1990s. And yet colours never quite came out the same on Kodachrome 64, the best film you could possibly have. I have been photographing them for a long time, with film. "That particular spot, or this area of the wine region, is known for that same thing - the rolling hills. It wasn't the first time he had attempted to capture the beauty of the hills, though. While I'm driving this beautiful, winding road to see Daphne, my God, the storm has just gone through, there are some white clouds, boy, I think I'll just get out and make a couple of frames," he says.Ĭhuck pulled out his medium format Mamiya RZ67 film camera and made Bliss. The storms are still coming through with rain and clouds. The grass is now getting a brilliant green. "There's a time of the year in our mid-winter, in January, when we've had rains. Bliss, meanwhile, has gone on to become one of the world's most iconic photographs, chosen as the default wallpaper of Microsoft's operating system. It was a regular Friday afternoon in 1996 when photographer Charles O'Rear took the drive through California's wine country to see his then-girlfriend Daphne.Ĭhuck, as he introduces himself in conversation, has since married Daphne. "It's because of her that we've got the photograph."Īlthough it will forever be associated with Windows XP, Bliss was actually the by-product of a love story.