Martin Richardson (b. 1958, London) gained his Photography MA at the Royal College of Art in 1986, and the world’s first PhD in display holography from The Royal College of Art in 1988. Martin Richardson is regarded as an imaging pioneer, and a master of holography. He has made holograms of many famous people, including film directors Martin Scorsese and Alan Parker, artist Sir Peter Blake and writer Will Self. His work with rock star David Bowie for a project using 3-D promotional material for the album ‘hours’ is well regarded.

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From 1992 – 2003 Richardson founded The Holographic Image Studio (THIS), recording large format display holograms, developing micro-lens lenticular technology for the advertising industry, and exhibiting globally. During this time, Richardson was also awarded the Millennium Fellowship by the UK Millennium Government Commission in 1999 and the prestigious Shearwater Foundation Award for Achievements in Holographic Art in 2002. Since 2004 the artist has been Chair of Holographic Art to the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) in the USA. In 2009 Richardson achieved Associate Membership to the Royal Photographic Society and that same year was awarded the ‘Saxby medal’ for his contributions to 3-D imaging.

Martin’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally in spaces such as The Science Museum (London), The Royal Photographic Society (Bath), The OXO Tower (London), and has held exhibitions in Japan, Germany, and the USA. His work is also featured in collections by The National Science and Media Museum (Bradford) and The Science Museum (London).

He is the author of an extensive number of books and publications including ‘Spacebomb: Holograms and Lenticular 1984 – 2004’, and his most recent authored book published in 2019, The Hologram: Principles and Techniques, is published by Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 10: 1119088909, explores the physics and art behind the science of holograms and their production. He is currently Professor of Modern Holography at De Montfort University, Leicester, and Head of The Holographic Research Group in the faculty of Art, Design & Architecture.

“I don't think I've ever quite experienced holograms like these, they really are magnificent. They almost become part of one’s family, and a very disturbing and ‘OTHERLY’ family at that.” - David Bowie on Martin Richardson