Bliss is the name of the default computer wallpaper of Microsoft Windows XP operating system. This is an unedited photo of a green hill and a blue sky with a cloud in the American Carnicultural Area of ​​Los Carneros in Sonoma County, California, United States. Charles O'Rear originally sent him to Corbis in 1996, and Microsoft bought the rights to the image in 2000.
Video Bliss (image)
Overview
Former National Geographic photographer Charles O'Rear, a resident of the nearby Napa Valley, took photographs in the film with a medium-format camera while on his way to visit his girlfriend in 1996. While it is widely believed later that the image it's manipulated digitally or even made with software like Adobe Photoshop, O'Rear says it never existed. He sold it to Corbis for use as a stock photo. A few years later, Microsoft engineers chose the digital version of the image and licensed it from O'Rear.
Over the next decade it has been claimed as the most viewed photo in the world during that time. Since it was taken, the landscape in it has changed, with the vine planted in the hills and the field in the foreground, making the O'Rear image can not be duplicated for now. That does not stop other photographers from trying, and some of their efforts have been included in art exhibitions.
Maps Bliss (image)
History
In January 1996, former Photographers of National Geographic Charles O'Rear was on his way from his home in St. Louis. Helena, California, in Napa Valley north of San Francisco, to visit her boyfriend, Daphne Irwin (who she later married), in the city, as she does every Friday afternoon. He works with Irwin in a book about wine country. He was very vigilant for the photo opportunity that day, as the storm had just passed and recent winter rains had left the area especially green. Driving along Sonoma Highway (California State Route 12 and 121) he sees the hill, free of the vineyard that normally covers the area; they had been pulled out several years earlier after phylloxera infestation. "That's it! God, the grass is perfect! Green! The sun's out, there's a cloud," he remembered thinking. He stopped somewhere near the Napa-Sonoma county line and took off his way to set the Mamiya RZ67 medium-format camera on a tripod, choosing Fujifilm's Velvia, a film often used among natural photographers and known for filling multiple colors. O'Rear defines the camera and movie combinations for image success. "It makes a difference and, I think, helps the 'Bliss' photo stand out," he said. "I think if I shoot it with 35 mm, it will not have nearly the same effect." When he was preparing his camera, he said it might be that the cloud in the picture came in. "Everything changed so fast at that time." He took four shots and returned to his truck. According to O'Rear, the images are not upgraded or digitally manipulated in any way.
Because it is not related to wine-country books, O'Rear makes it available through Corbis as a stock photo, available for use by interested parties willing to pay the appropriate license fees. In 2000 or 2001, Microsoft's Windows XP development team contacted O'Rear via Corbis, which he believes they use than bigger competitors Getty Images, also based in Seattle, since the company was previously owned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. "I do not know what [they] are looking for," he recalled. "Are they looking for a peaceful image? Are they looking for a picture that has no tension?"
Microsoft says they want to not only license the image to use as the default XP wallpaper, but to buy all rights to it. They offered O'Rear what he said was the second greatest payment ever made to a photographer for a picture; but he signed a confidentiality agreement and was unable to disclose the exact amount. It has been reported "in six low numbers." O'Rear needs to send the original Microsoft movie and sign the document; however, when couriers and delivery services realize the value of shipping, they refuse because it is higher than their insurance. So the software company bought him a plane ticket to Seattle and he personally mailed it to their office. "" I do not know where he is going, "he said. I do not think the engineers or anyone at Microsoft has any idea it will have that success. "
Microsoft gave a photo of his name, and made it an important part of his marketing campaign for XP. Although O'Rear does not manipulate images in any way, the company has admitted to cutting the original image slightly to the left to better fit the desktop and make the green stronger. Photographers estimate that images have been viewed on a billion computers worldwide since then, based on the number of XP copies sold since then. In addition, Microsoft released the animated version as a screensaver.
Rebuild
In November 2006, Goldin Senneby visited the site in Sonoma Valley where images of Bliss were captured, re-photographing the same look that is now full of wine (photos). Their work After Microsoft was first shown in the exhibition "Paris is Yesterday" at the La Vitrine gallery in April 2007. It was then exhibited at 300 m 3 in Gothenburg.
In 2006, SÃÆ' Â © bastien Mettraux, a Swiss artist, made a photo entitled Bliss, after Bill Gates, 2006. Mettraux, who lives and works near VallÃÆ'Â © e de Joux, explains that it was taken at Les Esserts-de-Rives, Switzerland. A local rumor states that Windows XP wallpaper hills come from this area in the heart of the "spectacle valley". This is a mistake but photography shows that the hill is similar. This photography is featured at the "Images'08" festival in Vevey.
In May 2010, GMA News reported that photographer Tony Immoos, who lives near the site, captured a shortened translation of the original, which he called "21st Century Bliss." Immoos claims that "2006 photo shoots [by Goldin Senneby] were taken from the wrong location, roughly 350 'East Far further, it is the correct hill, but shot in the wrong direction."
Reception
O'Rear kept a small copy of the picture on the wall of a room in his house. He was amazed at the places he saw his picture - on the monitor in the background of news reports from the White House, Situation Room and the Kremlin. "We were in Thailand a few years ago," she recalled in 2010, "walking in this small village looking for a place to eat, and there it's in the window... I think every corner of the world, every culture, every country, has been exposed that. "
It has been referred to as an iconic image that is comparable to Ansel Adams' Monolith, Half Dome's Face . O'Rear acknowledges that despite all the other photos he took for National Geographic, he may be remembered most for Bliss . "Anyone now from the age of 15 for the rest of their lives will remember this picture," he said.
Since the origin of the image is not widely known for several years after the XP release, there is much speculation about where the landscape is. Some allegations have included locations in France, Britain, Switzerland, New Zealand's North Otago region, and southeastern Washington. Dutch users believe the photo was taken in Irish County Kerry since the image was named "Ireland" in the Dutch release of the software; likewise, the image is named "Alentejo" in the Portuguese version, which directs the language-speaking users to believe it has been taken in the Portuguese eponymous territory.
Another user speculates that the image is not from the actual location, that the sky comes from a separate image and is connected together with a hill. O'Rear insisted that, in addition to Microsoft's small changes to the digital version, he did nothing in the darkroom, in contrast to Adams' Monolith :
I do not "make" this. I happen to be there at the right time and documenting it. If you are Ansel Adams and you take a particular Half Dome photo and want light in a certain way, you manipulate the light. He is famous for going into dark rooms and burning and dodging. Well, this is not it.
In 2012, David Clark of the British magazine Amateur Photographer commented on the aesthetic quality of Bliss . "Critics may argue that the image is bland and pointless, while supporters will say that its resurrection from a clear and clear day in the beautiful landscape itself is the subject," he wrote. He notes the "dream quality" created by the sun filtered on the hillside as a differentiator of the image. "What makes Microsoft choose the image above all else?" He asked. Although the company never told O'Rear or anyone, Clark thought he could guess. "It's interesting, easy to see and does not diminish other items that may be on the screen are all contributing factors.It may also be chosen because it is an unusual inviting image of a green landscape and one that promotes a sense of well-being in computer users of desk- bound. "
See also
- California State Route 12
References
External links
- Google Street View hill
- The story behind the wallpaper we'll never forget on YouTube (Short documentary about Bliss creation)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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