These vivid holographic portraits are palimpsests, like fleeting memories of times past. They belong to the 'theatre of spectacle'; side-shows, conjuring tricks, magic theatre, optical toys and lantern phantasmagoria made digital.. Early movies by cinematographers such as the Lumières held the same potency. In 1895 the Lumières advertised 'See life-size figures…come to life before your very eyes', and today we can draw a parallel with digital holograms.
Martin Richardson is currently Professor of Modern Holography at De Montfort University, Leicester. In 1988 he graduated from The Royal College of Art with the world's first PhD in display holography and in 1999 he was awarded a Millennium Fellowship by the UK Millennium commission for his work with inner city schools.
He has recorded the film directors Martin Scorsese and Alan Parker as holograms, as well as the Fine Artist Sir Peter Blake, and worked with David Bowie on several projects including promotional lenticular material for the album 'hours', all of which was documented in his first authored book 'SPACEBOMB: Holograms and Lenticulars 1984 - 2004', published 2005.
His second book 'The Prime Illusion: Modern Holography In The New Age Of Digital Media' was published in 2007 and has now been translated into Chinese, published by The Beijing University Press 2009.
VERTIGO
Holographic stereogram
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ELECTRA
Holographic stereogram
Quicktime video (35.3MB)
OVER THE RAINBOW
Holographic stereogram
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ATOMIC LOVE
Holographic stereogram
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Installation views of the exhibition.
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