Rob Munday U.K., b. 1958

Rob Munday FRSA was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1958, and grew up in the small coastal village of Caister-on-Sea. After gaining A-Levels in both the arts and sciences, he moved to Cornwall and Devon and, in 1983, graduated from Plymouth University/Plymouth College of Art with a BA(Hons) in Scientific and Technical Graphics, the first degree outside of the USA to specialise in the fledgling fields of computer graphics, television and video together with the more traditional subjects of photography, graphic design, and illustration. In his final year, he taught himself the new medium of holography and became one of the UK’s first generation of holographers. After graduating, Munday gained employment at Richmond Holographic Studios, working with pioneering artists Edwina Orr and David Traynor, and, at the same time, founded his own private holography studio, the forerunner of the studio and company he still operates today.

 

In 1985, Munday was invited to help establish and run the world's first postgraduate degree in creative holography as one of the three founding members of staff of the Royal College of Art's Holography Unit. During this time, Munday created some of the first computer-generated holographic stereogram artworks in 1984, including the first-ever reflection holograms of living animals, being described by one magazine as the world's first 'wildlife holographer'. In 1985 and 1988 respectively, he designed and built the only dedicated holographic portrait studio outside of the USA and made the world's first micro-computer-generated holographic stereogram.

In 1991, Munday left the RCA to run his own holography studio full time, build and operate the only holographic portrait studio in the UK, and build the world's first 3D digital hologram printer. In achieving the latter, Munday also created the world's first 3D digital holograms in early 1992.