Then and Now Picture of the Most-Viewed Photo in History
Did you know that the picture often seen as the wallpaper on Microsoft Windows XP is a real place? It’s located in California, USA, and it’s almost unedited. This photo, taken in 1996, has been viewed billions of times. It’s not surprising because it’s the first thing you usually see when you open your laptop.
The image depicts a hill surrounded by lush greenery under a sky painted in shades of blue with fluffy clouds. It’s called “Bliss,” fittingly named for its paradise-like appearance. The photo was captured in January 1996 by Charles “Chuck” O’Rear, a photographer for National Geographic. He is now 82 years old.
Here’s more about the picture: The location, once known for its bucolic green hills, is situated in the Los Carneros American Viticultural Area in California’s Wine Country, near Napa Valley. It’s even pinned on Google Maps.
In 2000, Microsoft purchased the picture from Charles to make it the default wallpaper for Microsoft Windows XP, launched in 2001. Due to the widespread use of the Windows XP operating system worldwide over the following decade, the picture became the most-viewed photo in the world.
Now, after nearly three decades, how does “Bliss” look? A YouTuber visited the location of the famous wallpaper and featured it in a video in March 2021. Andrew Levitt, along with his group, recreates famous landscape pictures. They decided to visit “Bliss” in 2021.
Upon arrival, they were shocked by the changes. The once lush greenery was replaced by a vineyard, and the sky was clear without a cloud in sight. The landscape was completely different from what Charles captured in 1996.
Andrew expressed his disappointment, saying, “It’s like fully unrecognizable though, especially with the vineyard. It definitely makes it harder [to recognize]. There’s no way to catch an identical photo still for comparison.” It’s saddening to see how the beauty of a place can change over time, often only remembered through old photographs.
