How does this artwork elucidate its Overview?
Former National Geographic photographer Charles O'Rear, a resident of the nearby Napa Valley, took the photo on film with a medium-format Mamiya RZ67 camera while on his way to visit his girlfriend in 1996. While it was widely believed later that the image was manipulated or even created with software such as Adobe Photoshop, O'Rear says it never was. He sold it to Westlight for use as a stock photo titled Bucolic Green Hills. Westlight was bought by Corbis in 1998, who digitized its best selling images. Two years following the acquisition, Microsoft's design team selected images to be used as wallpapers in Windows XP. The image would eventually be chosen as the default wallpaper, resulting in the company acquiring the image and renaming it to Bliss.
The image also became part of Microsoft's $200 million "Yes You Can" advertising campaign to promote their software, and has been the subject of many parodies.Microsoft chose the image because "it illustrates the experiences Microsoft strives to provide customers (freedom, possibility, calmness, warmth, etc.)."
Due to the market success of Windows XP, over the next decade it was claimed to be the most viewed photograph in the world during that time.
medium-format Adobe Photoshop Corbis advertising campaign Napa Charles O'Rear Windows XP Napa Valley manipulated Microsoft digitized stock photo National Geographic Mamiya RZ67