The story behind the iPad's home screen photo

When Steve Jobs revealed the iPad back in January, viewers stared in breathless amazement, none more so than Richard Misrach, the artist whose photo is the default home screen image.

He was sitting at home watching a movie when his phone rang. It was his agent, and he couldn't believe what was happening. Soon, Richard's family and friends were all calling. Needless to say, Apple's decision to use his photo for this "magical revolutionary device" was a surprise.

Misrach had submitted 10 photos for Apple to consider for "wallpaper" some time ago, but they had all been rejected, he told Art Info. There was no mention of the iPad at the time, but they eventually called back to say yes, they'd like to use his "Pyramid Lake (at Night)" photo.

He describes the image as "...a long night exposure where the moon is lighting up the mountains in the distance. I shot it on an 8x10 camera, so the quality is really beautiful and you can see star trails going through the sky." Those trails have startled some users, but I think they look great. The photo itself was taken at a Native American Indian reservation in Nevada.

Richard notes that this is the first time in his 40-year career that he's commercially licensed an image. He explains why with tongue-in-cheek style: "What's funny is that for years I actually used the photo as my own screensaver. So I guess they know what they're doing."

[Hat tip to Beau Colburn]

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Source: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33769/with-the-push-of-the…

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When Steve Jobs revealed the iPad back in January, viewers stared in breathless amazement, none more so than Richard Misrach, the artist...

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vinny2cubes

I was shocked when I first booted it up. I too thought initially that my brand new iPad had multiple scratches on the top of the screen... that's how crisp and clear the image is. After a few minutes I figured out they were in the photo, not the glass.

A nice desktop Apple, but really, don't you think you could've photoshopped those streaks out? Contrails or timelapse star streaks? It's not immediately apparent what they are anyway. You probably got thousands of calls from irate customers.

April 04 2010 at 12:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

First thing I did was change it.

April 04 2010 at 10:54 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Barry

Maybe I need to see the iPad in person, because I can't see myself thinking the stars are scratches.

April 04 2010 at 12:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

JKT

Your "startled" link is mis-coded in the story. You have two "http://"s in it.

April 03 2010 at 11:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Golfersal

The picture was wonderful and I am leaving it on my Ipad. But it gave my wife and I about 5 minutes of heartache because at first sight I thought the coating was scratched. We were in the process of calling the Apple store when my wife tilted the pad and the scratches moved with the tilt.
Have to think that a couple of folks will also think it's a flaw, pack it up and try to bring it back or ship it back to Apple. I would easily bet that Thousands get returned because of the stars.

April 03 2010 at 11:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott

Apple contacted me in November and asked me for high-res versions of photos they saw on my web site. They told me they were for "Apple desktop" use. What seemed strange (at the time) is that one image they chose was portrait orientation. After I saw the iPad debut, I realized what they were up to. Unfortunately they didn't end up choosing any if my pics.

Maybe it's because of these ;-)

http://scotthaefner.com/photos/place/Jackling+House/2290/

April 03 2010 at 9:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Scott's comment

balls

Did they ask you pricing, or talk about compensation?

April 03 2010 at 9:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott

We did agree on pricing. I feel like the amount is between me and Apple, but I will say it was not a huge sum of cash. Enough to make it worth it, but not as much as I would have thought based on licensing deals with other (smaller) clients.

April 03 2010 at 10:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

frank

wow, i live in reno, not far from pyramid lake, and in looking at the photo today when i fired up my ipad i said to my friend, "i wonder where that photo was taken? it looks like nevada!" and he said, "yeah, kinda like pyramid lake", but we both decided that it was probably taken somewhere in eastern california, where the terrain is pretty similar, lol.

April 03 2010 at 6:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom Roehl

The strange thing is that the star streaks make you think that your screen is scratched!

April 03 2010 at 6:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Tom Roehl's comment

Galley

I thought it was white hairs from my cat.

April 03 2010 at 7:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

msc1974

you can get a 1920â€†Ã—â€†1080 size version here:
http://iapple.spacequadrat.de/iPadAGV.png

it looks great on my iMac ;o)

April 03 2010 at 5:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to msc1974's comment