Bliss: The Eternal Wallpaper and a Landscape in Flux
Twenty seven years ago, Windows XP introduced a famous screensaver that showed a rolling hill beneath a blue sky with white clouds. The image, known simply as Bliss, conveyed serenity and calm, and many people still keep this wallpaper on their screens today.
There is a common belief that Bliss is a digitally created scene. It is not. This is a real landscape, captured without retouching in 1996 by National Geographic photographer Charles O’Rear.
On a California highway, while traveling through a region that caught his eye, O’Rear photographed a gentle rise covered in lush green grass with a sky full of soft, white clouds. The scene left a lasting impression of quiet beauty.
Current view of the hill
As the photographer notes, it was the rainy season, and recent rainfall amplified the greenness of the grass and clarified the air, lending the scene a fresh, vibrant quality.
Microsoft later noticed the image. Impressed by its aesthetics, the company acquired the rights to Bliss for a figure that was not disclosed publicly.
Change the image underwent
Even now, 27 years after its rise to global recognition, the famous hill has changed. The surface that once presented a monolithic green texture has given way to cultivated land that supports grape growing.
Another perspective shows the slope as it appears today, underscoring the transformation from a natural vista to an agricultural landscape.
Before Bliss was photographed, the land hosted vineyards. A year before the famous shot, the vines faced an outbreak of phylloxera, a pest that attacked grape crops and left the fields bare except for patches of green grass that persisted as a temporary cover. The land recovered after the season, and the owners reestablished vineyards in a manner that restored the area to its former agricultural use.
One year after the photo was taken, the land was ready again for farming, and the vineyards were replanted, returning to a productive state that remained visible for years to come.
This example illustrates how natural landscapes are never static. Agricultural needs, urban development, and industrial activities continually shape what people see. Bliss appeared as a fleeting moment within two phases of land use, a reminder that even iconic views are subject to change.
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Environmental authorities oversee land stewardship and landscape preservation, balancing ecological health with productive use of the land. The evolving scene around Bliss demonstrates how policy, climate, and farming practices interact with the visible world, leaving a lasting impression on those who remember the original photograph.