The NASDAQ sign in New York's Times Square announces the launch of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system scheduled for October 25, 2001. That wallpaper was also ultimately a central figure in an extraordinary $1 billion marketing campaign for the operating system. Microsoft found O’Rear’s hill shot, paid an undisclosed-but-exorbitant sum for all rights to it in perpetuity ( reportedly in the low six figures) and then proceeded to make it Windows XP’s default desktop wallpaper.
He uploaded the photo to a stock photo agency he helped co-found, and then two years later his stock photo agency was acquired by another stock photo agency that was regularly used by Microsoft. “After 25 years photographing at National Geographic, there will be no mention of Geographic on my tombstone,” he says with a laugh.Īnd, as much as it pains me to say, he’s probably right.īecause on one of those Friday afternoon drives to see Daphne in 1996, O'Rear pulled over to the side of the road and took a picture of the idyllic hill. Makes sense, considering the 79-year-old Missouri native was a staff photographer for The Kansas City Star and Los Angeles Times, plus spent 25 years shooting for National Geographic - where he twice landed cover images. “Every Friday afternoon I’d drive down to see her, spend the afternoon, then drive home,” he tells me over the phone from his North Carolina home. off Hwy 12, is the subject of one of the world's most viewed photos: Windows XP's default desktop wallpaper. Helena to Marin to see his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Daphne Larkin. He drove past it more than 100 times in the mid-’90s on his way from St.
Now blanketed by endless rows of wine grapes is “Bliss” hill, the subject of one of the most-viewed images in history: the default desktop wallpaper for the Windows XP operating system.Ĭharles O’Rear knows this hill well.
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