The Transnational Hunt for a Windows Wallpaper

The hunt came to an end for writer Nick Tosches, who finally discovered that photographer Peter Burian of Ontario, Canada was behind the famous Windows XP background: Autumn (c) Peter K. Burian. Visit Peter’s incredible collection of images, at http://www.peterkburian.com

Geography is sometimes right in front of you — especially if you work in a cubicle.

Ever wonder who took the famous autumn picture that Windows XP offers as part of its desktop theme? Nick Tosches, Vanity Fair Contributing Editor ended up in a worldwide cat-and-mouse-game trying to find out.

His search went through public relations firms, photo stock agencies, freelance photographers, editors, even the personal e-mail inbox of Bill Gates himself. The elusive coordinates of the “Autumn” scene were finally discovered, but only after months of searching.

WE all know the image — a long line of golden trees surround the faint outline of a barn, rustic fences buffet the edge of the path — it all just looks so dreamy and so very uncubicle-like. Really, it’s an iconic symbol of post-modern technology. Bill Gates’ Corbis agency owns the rights to the image, but declined to offer the photographer’s name.

So Tosches e-mailed Russian image sellers, talked to Vermont tourism agencies, a New York ad exec, and even his own brother. After an exhaustive search, he found the place: Kilbride, Canada — a quaint village in Ontario.

Now if only every office was Kilbride. And every tree-lined lane looked like the bucolic path to the Harris Homestead… Ah, it would be great to go to work via that path every day…

Source:

http://www.vanityfair.com/ontheweb/features/2007/02/autumn200702?printable=true&currentPage=all