Losing Lena

There’s a secret hidden in almost every digital image and website you’ve ever seen. That secret is Lena, Miss November 1972. Or as others have called her, Tech’s Original Sin. Back in the 70s, some guys at the University of Southern California used Lena’s centrefold to test their image-processing algorithms. This research laid the groundwork for the JPEG. Today, with complete indifference to women, Lena remains the most-used test image in the world. Losing Lena campaigns for the removal of the Lena image to create a more equitable future for women in tech.