Welcome to Holographer.org!

Holography is like malaria – once you have the virus, it will never leave you. I enjoyed the magic of holography until some 15 years ago when I moved into the publishing field. I tried to shake off the virus, but it hung onto me. So here I am, with an online magazine that will hopefully serve the field that so many of us have a passion for.

As the “.org” implies, this is a non-profit venture. I want the magazine to look and to be serious, and professional. All articles are copy edited, and are typeset by the talented team in my company, Focal Image Ltd. Of course there are real costs associated with the magazine, but for the forseeable future, Focal Image will absorb these costs. If we do need to charge for subscriptions in future, it will only be to cover the costs, not to make a profit.

I caught the holography bug some 25 years ago, after seeing the famous Royal Academy exhibitions in London. The queue stretched well into the street and people waited literally hours to get a glimpse of these holograms. The new medium was the talk of the town.

At that time, when I set about getting more information about holography, there was no shortage of people to give me advice. There were regular meetings, exhibitions, amateur holographers, etc. At one point there were at least 6 schools of holography worldwide. Those were the days ...

Now you are hard pressed to find a course on holography. The last major exhibition of holograms was probably around 20 years ago. And the only holograms we see around, apart from security holograms, are cheap film holograms with cheap looking images – with some exceptions, needless to say. No wonder there is a lack of young aspiring holographers.

I wonder why we are in the state we are now. Many people believe that we are now in the digital age, and everything needs to be animated and interactive, and holograms have had their day. Well, I am not prepared to accept that.

We have a ‘lost generation’ of holographers. Very few people have seen a really first class hologram. Fewer still, a laser illuminated one – the type that got us hooked in the first place.

I believe that not only is holography a wonderful art form, but it still has untapped potential in diverse areas: portraiture, museums, 3D hard copy, etc. This magazine is my modest attempt at rekindling interest in display holography. Time will tell if it has any effect, but I see it as my duty to ‘have a go’. If it fails, at least my conscience is clear!

Now I have learnt that starting a magazine is a ‘chicken and egg’ problem: you can’t announce a magazine unless it has something to read. And nobody wants to write in it till they know what it looks like. My solution was to use psychological pressure on good colleagues and friends of many years, and I managed to get seven contributions (in addition I put in two articles myself):

• The long awaited third edition of Practical Holography has just been published, and Iñaki Beguiristain has reviewed it for us.
• Jeff Blyth has written an article on the innovative uses of holograms in biotechnology in Cambridge University. (This is not strictly display, but I think it’ll be interesting for holographers.)
• Michael Dalton agreed to write a piece on visual perception and depth cues.
• Pearl John has written about the work she is doing in educating schoolchildren in holography.
• Andy Pepper has a short but powerful piece on the BentonVision event.
• David Pizzanelli’s contribution is a meaty account of development of digital-write holograms. It is a really intriguing historical piece.
• Manuel Ulibarrena provides evidence of a great recording material for full colour holography.
• Finally, I have written a tutorial on white light transmission holograms, and in addition I have released version 0.5 of my HoloPov program, which I hope display holographers will find useful.

I am obviously grateful to all these friends who have staked their reputation, and helped kick-start this magazine. Now it’s your turn. Don’t let their efforts be in vain, and don’t let your knowledge go to waste. Share it. Thank you.