Just Lena: the strange story of the best-selling issue of Playboy magazine (2 photos)

The best-selling issue of Playboy of all time was the issue for November 1972 with Swedish model Lena Söderberg Sales record was put thanks to the "girl of the month" on the spread. However the popularity of the number was not associated with the beauty and sexuality of the model, but using her snapshot in computer programming.





The story began in the summer of 1973, when a group of engineers University of Southern California helped a colleague, Alexander Savchuk, find a photo for research on image processing algorithms, according to statement from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

“They rummaged through a stock of photographs that are usually for this used - boring illustrations of the television standard of the 1960s era years. For the best result, they needed a glossy shot with a wide range of colors, and they wanted a photograph with a human face."

Someone suggested taking a picture from Playboy magazine for November 1972 with Pamela Rawlings on the cover. However, the engineers went further than the first page and looked into the middle, stumbling upon a photo shoot with Lena Söderberg. Since they were still at work, they scanned only a fragment - the model's face and bare shoulder.

So the photo called "Lena" went down in history. Scientific research on computer image processing formed the basis JPEG and MPEG standards.

“Since then, the playmate centerfold has become de facto standard (a technical specification that was not originally standard, which historically began to be widely used and be accepted as such): it tested and worked out all sorts of methods of image correction, honed new processing algorithms. Thanks to this, the mysterious Lena became the first lady of the Internet.

Because the source of the photo was cited, other researchers bought several copies of the magazine to repeat the experience. This lifted sales of the issue and made it a collector's item among programmers. The image has essentially become the most used photo women at work on computers.

The magazine with the photo shoot Söderberg sold more than seven copies million copies, and the model itself has become a real star in circles programmers. She even attended a community conference in 1997 Imaging Science and Technology, which deals with the science of collection, storage, search and processing of visual information, and with pleasure signing autographs there.

Not everyone liked the use of the image of the model Playboy in technology - from teachers in educational institutions to scientists who considered this a manifestation of sexism.

It is curious that representatives of Playboy magazine did not responded to the use of the photo without their permission. In 1997 In an interview, they only said:

“We decided that we should just enjoy such success. Because this case has become a real phenomenon.”