London is a world class museum destination for art and history lovers, from the National Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum to the Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery. But one of its most unusual art collections is found in a Victorian-era house on a tree-lined street in central London. The private home of hologram archivist Jonathan Ross and his painter/sculptor wife Camilla Shivarg houses one of the world’s most extensive collections of holographic fine art and commercial art dating back to some of the medium’s earliest days – as well as contemporary exhibits. Right now, at Gallery 286, Ross is putting the finishing touches on his latest exhibit, “Unveiling the Unconscious,” from artist Jonathan Mitton (also known as Jack Myntan). “I first met Jon when he was a student at the Royal College of Art in London in the early 1990s, and he’s always been very experimental in his approach,” Ross says, noting that he first showcased Mitton’s work in holograms, lenticulars and mixed media in 1999.
Ross’ deeper relationships with holographic artists are those he has exhibited over the years, such as Mitton, but he stresses he’s “always open to approaches from newcomers.” “These days I am most likely to encounter new artists on platforms like Instagram or through the Facebook Holography Group.” He also points out that, “most artists who have worked with holography in the past would like to do so again, as it most definitely enables them to achieve effects impossible in any other medium.” Up-and-coming holographic artists that Ross has exhibited include Ioana Pioaru, Liza Read and Dora Tass.
All but “the most committed holographers,” he says, are discouraged by “the demanding laboratory conditions required for working with holograms and lasers, the scarcity of reliable holographic emulsions, not to mention the display requirements, and the tiny market for the end product.” As a result, artists that have created holographic art often also work in other media; Mitton’s latest exhibit, “Artificial,” is an example. His latest show relies on a technique dating from the Surrealist Art movement, in which the artist allows her hand to move randomly across the page. Mitton then fed those drawings into an AI system that interpreted the artwork. Several pieces incorporate AR (augmented reality), which gallery visitors can see via a downloaded AR app.
Ross likes to keep in touch with what is happening with holography internationally. He points to Matthew Schreiber, an artist known for his work in holography and large-scale laser light sculptures, whose work is currently part of a Getty Museum exhibit “Sculpting with Light: Contemporary Artists and Holography.” Other contemporary holographers he is following include August Muth whose studio in Santa Fe “is a global center of excellence of artists working with dichromate gelatin (DCG) holography,” and Pepe Buitrago, whose Centro de Holografía y Artes Dados Negros in Ciudad Real in Spain often has exhibitions of contemporary holography and offers artist residencies, a library and other resources.
Ross’ own interest in holography dates from the late 1970s. “I had attended the Centre for Study of Modern Art in London and worked briefly in film production and theatre management,” he says. “Holography represented an exciting opportunity to get involved with a medium that seemed to have tremendous potential, both commercially and artistically.” At the time, holography in the U.K. was limited to the research of mavericks such as Nicholas Phillips, a physics professor at Loughborough University, where he did holography research starting in the 1960s. Phillips became the technical director of Holoco, whose 1977 Light Fantastic exhibition of display holograms was such a popular success that it was repeated the next year. Holoco was funded in part by the rock band The Who, with the hope that it could use holography in its rock shows, an example of how scientists and artists collaborated to explore this new medium in that era.
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At that time Ross got to know the handful of established holographic artists including Margaret Benyon, Harriet Casdin-Silver, Sam Moree, Dan Schweitzer, Rudie Berkhout and Anaït. “Gradually I got to hear about others such as John Kaufman, Bill Molteni, Randy James, Rick Silverman, Ana Maria Nicholson, Doris Vila, Lon Moore and Larry Lieberman,” Ross says. “And I went on what I called Holo safaris, tracking down artists in their studios on the U.S. East and West coasts or at the International Symposium for Display Holography.” The U.K. holographic art scene developed substantially in the 1980s, fostered by workshops run at Goldsmiths College by Michael Wenyon and Susan Gamble, Edwina Orr and David Trayner’s Richmond Holographic Studios and the Royal College of Art Holography Unit.
Ross and a group of fellow enthusiasts also joined forces and launched SEE 3 (Holograms), Ltd. for the origination of commercial display holograms, and The Hologram Place, a first-ever gallery in Europe devoted to holography, to exhibit what their production company produced as well as others’ work. (Ross sold SEE 3 in 1990.)
When The Hologram Place closed, Ross acquired the gallery’s unsold stock and began adding to it work by other holographic artists. By 1990, he began collecting holographic art more seriously, along with other aspects of holography. From the beginning, Ross tried to differentiate between fine art and display art in his exhibitions. “The early holography blockbuster exhibitions tended to exhibit all types of work together, which annoyed the artists, as they felt that the occasionally gimmicky aspects of display holography would detract from their own work,” explains Ross.
Display holography encompasses the applied uses of holography – entertainment, education, retail, industrial, for example – as distinct from the aims of fine art. It was prevalent in the 1980s to 1990s, when galleries and gift shops where visitors could see or acquire examples of commercial or display holography proliferated. “Working for ten years with the commercial applications of holography gave me an appreciation of the skills required for that kind of work and the tremendous creativity that can be demonstrated in that field,” says Ross.
Ross categorizes part of his collection as commercial holography, which he defines as mass-produced holograms with multiple applications, also tremendously popular in the 1980-1990s time frame. “The mass production of holograms took off with the development of the embossed hologram in the U.S. by Mike Foster, Steve McGrew at Light Impressions and Ken Haines at American Bank Note Holographics,” says Ross. “Deriving from Steve Benton’s invention of the rainbow hologram, the advantage was that a lot of work can be put into creating the master and reproduction is then a mechanical process.”
“In June 1983, when Amateur Photographer published its First 3D Hologram Cover, designed by Ken Harris, to coincide with the Light Dimensions exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath, a new era in illustration and a new opportunity for holography had begun.” Other commercial work that followed in this era were found in the music industry, which used embossed holography to decorate LP record sleeves, vinyl and CDs. Ross’ SEE 3 company devised a process for incorporating 2D/3D holograms into picture discs and accomplished a few commercial jobs in that field. Holographic trading cards, mainly dominated by sports and comics, with other uses such as telephone cards, where also popular in this time. “I have the greatest of respect for anyone who succeeds in making good holograms of whatever type,” Ross says. “Having worked in all categories of holography — art, display and commercial — I take my hats off to holographers in general … But I inevitably gravitated toward fine art holography and have tried to promote that work in my gallery.”
Preserving holographic art has its challenges. “Like any photographic medium, holograms should be kept in a stable environment and preserved from extremes of temperature and humidity,” says Ross “Prolonged exposure to light can also result in changes in the color of certain works.” He adds that, “works on glass tend to survive better than those on film,” but that many factors can impact the longevity of a given work.
In the holography darkroom, “the initial processing and washing of the plate or film is important and the subsequent protection of the emulsion by covering it with a layer of paint or vinyl, or by sealing it to a cover glass,” he explains. Multiplex/integral holograms on film pose a challenge to preservation since “the emulsion always tends to be exposed.” Ross has stored the majority of his collection in a single room in his home/gallery. “I have been a custodian for over 40 years,” he says, “and most of them have survived very well.”
Ross is not actively collecting holograms anymore, but occasionally accepts donations from holographers looking for a home for certain works. For those who’d like to see images but can’t make it to London, his historic holography collection can be found in his freely available catalogue at www.jrholocollection.com. The online catalogue of hundreds of artworks is an A to Z collection of fine art, display and commercial holographic artists, many of whom have exhibited in his Gallery through the years. The ultimate destination for the collection, he adds, is the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.