Lena Forsén (), previously Soderberg (born Sjööblom; born 31 March 1951), is a Swedish model who appeared as a

Playmate A Playmate is a female model featured in the centerfold/gatefold of ''Playboy'' magazine as Playmate of the Month (PMOTM). The PMOTM's pictorial includes nude photographs and a centerfold poster, along with a pictorial biography and the "Playm ...

in the November 1972 issue of ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'' magazine, as Lenna Sjööblom. Her

centerfold The centerfold or centrefold of a magazine is the inner pages of the middle Folio, sheet, usually containing a portrait, such as a pin-up or a Nudity, nude. The term can also refer to the model featured in the portrait. In saddle-stitched maga ...

was photographed by

Dwight Hooker Dwight Hooker (June 22, 1928 – January 3, 2015) was an American photographer and architect. He was best known as a photographer for ''Playboy'' magazine and has been described as one of the masters of "the sensual and the erotic", along with ph ...

. The image would later become a ubiquitous

standard test image A standard test image is a digital image file used across different institutions to test image processing and image compression algorithms. By using the same standard test images, different labs are able to compare results, both visually and qua ...

in the field of

digital image processing Digital image processing is the use of a digital computer to process digital images through an algorithm. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing. It allo ...

, where the image is known as

Lenna Lenna (or Lena) is a standard test image used in the field of digital image processing, starting in 1973. It is a picture of the Swedish model Lena Forsén, shot by photographer Dwight Hooker and cropped from the centerfold of the November ...

Career

Modelling

Forsén's career began by modelling jewellery and for catalogues in Chicago, Illinois, after moving to the United States from Sweden to be an

au pair An au pair (; : au pairs) is a person working for, and living as part of, a homestay, host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family’s responsibility for child care as well as some homemaking, housework, and receive a monetary ...

for a family member. In 1972, she was shot for the

of the November issue of ''

'' magazine. After that, she moved to Rochester, New York, and became a " Shirley" – a

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

model – while moonlighting as a bartender. Thereafter she appeared on a large number of Kodak publications, including in ads for products, in catalogs, and on instruction booklets.

Lenna

A cropped version (the head and shoulder section) of her centerfold, known as Lenna, has become a

that is often used to test algorithms in

. She was a guest at the 50th annual Conference of the

Society for Imaging Science and Technology The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) is a professional society (a type of research and education organization) in the field of photography. Founded in 1947 as the Society of Photographic Scientists and Engineers (SPSE), it is head ...

(IS&T) in 1997, where she gave a presentation about herself. Because of the ubiquity of her ''Playboy'' photo scan, she has been called the "first lady of the internet". The title was given to her by Jeff Seideman in a press release he issued announcing her appearance at the 50th annual IS&T Conference. In January 2019 she said that while she wished she had been better compensated, she was "really proud of that picture". However, in a short documentary titled ''Losing Lena'' that premiered in North America in November that year, she says, "I retired from modeling a long time ago. It’s time I retired from tech, too."

After modelling

In 1997, Forsén worked for a government agency supervising disabled employees, archiving data using computers and scanners.

Personal life

Forsén has been married twice, has three children, and multiple grandchildren.

References

External links

Lenna's centerfold in the Playboy Archive, November 1972, pp 138-140
*

The Lenna Story (contains a link to an un-cropped scan of the original Playboy centerfold)

A video artwork inspired by Lenna's story
1970s Playboy Playmates 1951 births Glamour models Living people Swedish female models People notable for being the subject of a specific photograph 20th-century Swedish women {{playmate-stub