OldFatGuy: EDIT2: Yeah, I just moved some of the icons (currently with white text) over top of the black background and it's way easier for me to see them now. But if I changed them to all black, they would be very hard there. We should be able to assign colors to individual icons as we fill our desktop up with icons. Otherwise, the only possible option I guess is to have one solid background color.
My heartfelt sympathy!
With a bit of Photoshop (or just MS Paint, really), you could create a blank / solid-color background image with the size of your desktop resolution. And then insert your photo, resize & move it around until you like the result. Save & set as your desktop wallpaper.