Charles O'Rear

Charles O'Rear (born 1941) is an American photographer best known for his photos of wine country and the image Bliss ^[1] that was used as a standard wallpaper in Windows XP.

During the 1970s, he contributed to the Environmental Protection Agency’s DOCUMERICA project. O’Rear photographed for National Geographic Magazine for more than 25 years. He began his focus on winemaking in 1978 as an assignment to photograph the Napa Valley. Afterwards, he moved to Napa Valley and began photographing wine production around the world.^[2][3] To date, O’Rear has provided photographs for seven wine books.

O'Rear's photograph, Bliss, as seen in a typical Windows XP desktop.

O'Rear's photograph of the rolling hills of Sonoma County^[4], titled Bliss, was used as a standard wallpaper in Windows XP and as part of the Microsoft Corporation US$200 million advertising campaign, Yes you can. The image is also available as one of the many image options on Capital One credit cards, and has been subject to many parodies.

Photo books

• Chardonnay: Photographs from Around the World by Charles O'Rear and Michael Creedman (1999)
• Napa Valley: The Land, The Wine, The People (2001)
• Wine Country by John Doerper, Charles O'Rear (Compass American Guides)
• Cabernet: A Photographic Journey from Vine to Wine by Michael Creedman and Charles O'Rear, Foreword by Robert Mondavi
• Wine Places: The Land, the Wine, the People by David Furer and Charles O'Rear (2005)
• Beautiful Wineries by Charles O'Rear and Thom Elkjer (2005)
• Wine Aross America: A Photographic Road Trip by Charles O'Rear and Daphne Larkin (2007)

References

1. ^ Younger, Carolyn (2010-01-18). "Windows XP desktop screen is a Napa image". Napa Valley Register. http://www.napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_7703c8b2-03e9-11df-bb34-001cc4c03286.html. Retrieved 2010-01-18. 
2. ^ "Biography, Charles O'Rear". wineviews.com. http://www.wineviews.com/portfolio/bio/index.html. Retrieved 2006-12-27. 
3. ^ "Bio, Charles O'Rear". tenspeed.com. http://www.tenspeed.com/authors/view.html?id=820&zenid=4150c0cec528f567cb640e518e971a1f. Retrieved 2008-10-14. 
4. ^ "Ever wonder where the Windows XP default wallpaper came from?". thenextweb.com. http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/08/28/ever-wonder-where-the-windows-xp-default-wallpaper-came-from/. Retrieved 2011-08-31. 

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Name	Orear, Charles
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Date of birth	1941
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