Russell Kirsch

Russell A. Kirsch (June 20, 1929 - August 11, 2020) was an American computer scientist at the National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, who developed the first digital image scanner in 1957 to trace variations of intensity across the surface of photographs. Using this scanner he produced what is considered the world's first digital photograph, an image of his infant son Walden encoded as a 176 by 176 pixel black and white array; Life magazine named the image one of the 100 Photographs That Changed the World in 2003, and the original photograph is held by the Portland Art Museum.