This is the transformation that the rolling green hill of Windows XP has undergone, 27 years later
27 years ago, Windows Xp flooded homes and offices around the planet with the image of his screensaver: a rolling hill under a blue sky with white clouds. It transmitted serenity and peace. In fact, this photo is known as ‘Bliss’ and even today thousands of users keep this wallpaper.
Among many people the belief took root that it was an artificially generated image, but this is not the case. This is a real landscape, without any retouching, that was captured by a National Geographic photographer, Charles O’Rear, in 1996.
Air I was traveling on a California highway (USA) when he crossed a landscape that he considered worthy of being photographed. It consisted of a soft undulation covered with intense green grass and the sky with peaceful white clouds. The visual impression was that of a pleasant landscape that inspired peace.
Current appearance of the hill
| Agencies
Furthermore, as the author of the image explains, it was the rainy season and, in fact, It had just rained recently, which enhanced the greenness of the landscape and the cleanliness of the atmosphere.
The Microsoft company saw the image and, attracted by its aesthetics, decided to buy the rights to ‘Bliss’ for a figure that has never been revealed.
The change produced
However, 27 years after he rose to global fame, This hill no longer looks the same. Currently, the uniform green tapestry of its surface has disappeared and it has become agricultural land, exploited for planting vines.
Another image of what the hillside looks like now.
| Agencies
And, in fact, before the famous photograph was taken, this land was already a vineyard as it is now, but a year before the plague of phyloxerawhich attacks the vines, ended this crop and the field was free of any plant other than green grass looking like grass.
A year after the photo, the land was once again suitable for agriculture and its owners replanted vineyards, actually recovering the appearance it had previously.
It is a demonstration that the natural landscape is subject to constant changes, sometimes for agricultural, other urban and other industrial reasons. However, in this case the seemingly intact appearance of the hill It was just a brief parenthesis between two episodes of agricultural exploitation.
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