Ken Harris (1946-2022) RIP

Holography News® was saddened to learn of the passing of Ken Harris in Bellinzona, Switzerland on 18 January 2022.

Ken was born in Detroit, Michigan on 21 September 1946 but, by the early 1980s, had found his way to the UK, where he was creating art holograms from his studio in Chelsea – a fashionable district of London. During this period, he produced some great work, including ‘HoloMan’ which is in Jonathan Ross’ collection. He also made some large display holograms for the Hard Rock Cafe on Piccadilly.

He joined with John Brown and Steve McGrew in Light Impressions Europe and created sales promotion holograms, including the famous ‘Tony the Tiger’ series which were used by Kellogg’s across the world.

It was during this time, when he was making a great deal of master holograms, which required him to work long and unsociable hours to avoid vibrations, that he realised that the future of holographic mastering needed to be automated, if only to get himself out of the lab. His research led him to Frank Davis and the Dot Matrix hologram originating system that was to become the foundation of the commercial display holography industry that we have now.

People who worked with Ken characterise him as a fascinating man; one of those rare people who combined a high level of creative ability with impressive technical skills, which he then leveraged to great effect in the supply of equipment to produce holograms and OVDs for over 30 years.

Up until the end of his life, Ken continued to create and innovate and was looking forward to developing new mastering systems in his US facility and doing more business in China.