PREFACE

Holography and the Laser Arts is both a real and virtual exhibition of holographic phenomena that happened to me. The story of Holography - wavefront reconstruction to the scientists, and three dimensional laser photography to an artist - is also a story about the value of culture to contemporary civilization. I was a hippy in the Haight Ashbury when I became an early student of Lloyd Cross and Michael Kan at the School of Holography in San Francisco, California. Cross’s students were to go out and spread the art and techniques of holography to the rest of the World. At the time, we thought maybe we were creating history.

I’ve had access to a holography studio almost continuously since 1972. This has allowed me to develop an informed aesthetic of holography, exploring an evolving array of types of holograms and techniques. I’ve participated in, and observed, the birth of a new media. Its universal constraints are very personal to me.

In 1972, when I began my holographic career, Art still had power to lead, rather than reflect, science and contemporary culture and mores. The way a government and its people spent money on the Arts, and valued and archived the Arts, was a true mark of the level of civilization a nation offered to its people and the World.

It has been suggested to me that artists need to archive their own historical record in holography. And, it is the ephemera of holography - the posters, the reviews, the newsletters, the invitations to the exhibitions, that are almost as valuable, in the long run, as holograms themselves. The best history is the original records and writings of the participants making the history. These are the primary sources for the historian, of which I have made fair use.

This document also records pictures of Gregory W. Cherry’s work in holography. Greg Cherry and I got to know each other during the laser light performances of Song of Ages. Later, we married and started the holographic art company, Cherry Optical Holography.

This document pictures our pioneering work in laser scanning techniques and performance, spanning early Laser Affiliates Light Sound Motion Performances to our recent Laser Light & Percussion Orchestra. The beauty of laser light and its potential in performance coexists with the exploration of holographic space. Laser lighting effects and a few holographic techniques we developed are in common usage today.

Over time, we documented our work extensively in slide transparencies, video, film and digital imagery, some of which is included here. In particular, the beautiful photographs and videography, primarily by Greg Cherry, with a few images by Jeffrey W. Milton, and Steve Anderson, join my endeavours to illustrate this contribution to holography and the laser arts.

This book started out as my Resume; in reverse chronological order, with more recent work first. Initially, I thought I was adding illustrations and support documents. The hundreds of JPEGs of holograms, theater art, posters, invitations, reviews and articles started adding up, turning this into something more.