If you\u2019re older than about 24, then you probably won\u2019t be surprised to learn that the image above is often hailed as the most viewed photograph in the world.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right, the minimalist image \u2013 taken by former National Geographic photographer Charles O\u2019Rear\u2019s \u2013 is likely to slap anyone born around the millennium with a backhand of nostalgia so great, that pulling a shiny Charizard, watching an episode of Daria or listening to Black Hole Sun couldn\u2019t compare.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n And in the month of January 2026, the image we\u2019ve come to know as Bliss (originally Bucolic Green Hills) has reached its 30th birthday. The iconic shot served as the Microsoft XP operating system\u2019s default wallpaper from 2001 to 2007, and is estimated to have been seen by a billion people (or billions, depending on who you ask).<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n As such, it\u2019s often regarded as the most viewed photograph of all time. It\u2019s certainly up there with the Apollo 11 images, the shot of Marilyn Monroe standing over the subway grate, and V-J Day in Times Square.<\/p>\n But where most of the world\u2019s most famous photos are about capturing a historic moment in time, Bliss bucks the trend in that it\u2019s a minimalist image of a rather unremarkable landscape.<\/p>\n And yet, I think it\u2019s precisely this simplicity that is part of the image\u2019s enduring charm. It was captured in California\u2019s Sonoma County and yet, devoid of context, it could feasibly be any green hill across the globe. As such, it\u2019s instantly relatable \u2013 and it boasts near-technical perfection, too.<\/p>\n It fits neatly within the rule of thirds<\/a>, while the soft patches of light and shadow accentuate the curvature of the rolling hills, and the bright-white cirrus clouds pop against the deep-blue sky.<\/p>\n Bliss is so perfect that you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking it heavily edited or even a render. But what is perhaps most surprising is that it\u2019s an analog image, captured using a Mamiya RZ67 medium format camera<\/a> and a roll of Fujifilm<\/a> Velvia. Some have questioned whether Bliss was edited, but O\u2019Rear and indeed UCR Arts<\/a> maintain otherwise.<\/p>\n It was also an impromptu capture. O\u2019Rear took the photograph en route to visit his girlfriend. And while Bliss is more iconic, he also photographed another Windows XP wallpaper called Red Moon Desert \u2013 which I personally think is an even better image!<\/p>\n According to Windows Wallpaper Wiki<\/a>, the image was initially available through O\u2019Rear\u2019s co-owned stock-image library Westlight, with Bill Gates\u2019 Corbis purchasing Westlight in 1998. In 2000, Microsoft bought the full rights to \u2018Bliss\u2019 for an undisclosed six-figure sum.<\/p>\n Today, the location has been replanted as vineyards, but we\u2019ll always have the rolling green hills and vibrant blue sky immortalized by Charles O\u2019Rear. Arguably, the most viewed photograph of all time.<\/p>\n You might also like… <\/p>\n Want more inspiring photos? His color photos made him famous \u2013 but these early black-and-white images prove that Martin Parr was always a master<\/a>. For more Noughties nostalgia: I found an old compact camera in the closet<\/a>. When I powered it on, I started crying. And here’s the latest camera news<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re older than about 24, then you probably won\u2019t be surprised to learn that the image above…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-254201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}