BLISS

A lush green hill rising against the horizon; white meringue clouds floating across bright skies – this is Bliss, the photo which served as the default background for Windows XP, one of the most popular computer systems in the early Noughties. It’s an iconic picture. The snapshot became one of the most widely-known photographs in the world and captured the longing of a generation.

The playful user interface Microsoft Luna is different from previous system interfaces. Its blue and green tinted menu seems like a toy; it was designed to appeal to teenagers and young adults. Luna is pure, unadulterated fun, free from all seriousness; Windows XP appears to have come out to play. It is a digital sandbox, a platform for playing The Sims 1 or to complete personality quizzes on Buzzfeed. Endless buffering is an integral part of the 2001 online experience, just like the comfortable jingle echoing in the background: ‘Time for Teletubbies.’ A kid’s show that looks like it might have been shot on the green hills in Bliss.

A new design style is born: Frutiger Aero. Deeply rooted in the Microsoft system’s radical stylistic changes, it reflects the hopes and sorrows of a whole generation. Luna’s optimism triggers a domino effect in the media landscape. Frutiger Aero pops up in advertisement, desktop backgrounds and product design: Computers sinking into oceans; mobile phones hovering over playgrounds; skyscrapers towering over green pastures. The rich, highly saturated colors pop, natural elements sprout like freshly sown cress seeds, taking the form of soap bubbles, water drops, clouds, trees and meadows. But do nature and technology really go that well together?

Round shapes replace angular, sharp and bulky designs. These new shapes are a symbol for everything society longs for: peace, harmony, wholeness, infinity, security, happiness – bliss. All of these attributes are essential for bringing together technology and nature in a harmonic way. Futuristic utopias are supposed to create hope for happier days.

Unshakable Optimism

The image Bliss has been viewed more than one billion times, making it one of the most well-known photographs today. It owes its success, at least in part, to Goldin+Senneby, two artists who trawled Bill Gates’ photography database Corbin in search of a default background for the new operating system Windows XP. They were looking for a nature shot that combines the windows colours blue and green as well as radiating positivity and hope, in line with Windows’ new company image. In the end, the artists picked a snapshot.

For that’s how photographer Charles O’Rear refers to his own photo when I talk to him about his iconic image Bliss. He took the photograph in 1996 in California’s Napa Valley wine country on his way to his then-girlfriend, now-wife. At the time he was working as a photographer for National Geographics and was therefore quite adept at landscape photography. ‘I didn’t expect that this photo in particular would become so famous,’ he says with a laugh. Of course he didn’t – how could anyone take a snapshot in passing and expect it to become one of the most famous photographs in the world? ‘A few years later, I got a call from Microsoft,’ O’Rear continues. ‘They didn’t just ask me for the photo; they invited me to their place and asked me to bring the entire film with the original negative for the photo.’ He is still amazed at how big hype around the photo grew: ‘People are still flooding my inbox because of a picture I took in 1996.’

To O’Rear, it’s a snapshot. To others, it’s the essence of longing. These ‘others’ are people who grew up with Bliss. A whole generation whose minds echo ‘Time for Teletubbies’ as soon as they catch a glimpse of a perfect green meadow. A generation that grew up with the internet. Before I leave, I ask O’Rear what ‘bliss’ means to him. He just laughs: ‘Sitting here in my house in California where my wife and I share a life together, looking out of the window and seeing nothing but forest. I live in a paradise of tranquility surrounded by nature. That’s bliss to me.’ I picture Charles O’Rear living out the utopian dream of nature and hope that his famous photograph Bliss symbolises: Lowering his laptop screen to look out of an actual window.

As featured in SLEEK BLISS – 78. Available in print and digital here.