Lloyd Cross conjunctly sums up in his evolution the first two generations of holographers, since he not only has given the medium technological impulses typical of the first one, but in his teachings at San Francisco's Holography School, which he founded in 1971 that caused a definitive impact in the formation of many key figures of the second one.

Cross, a physicist, was involved in the research of masers and lasers since the end of the fifties. In 1968, together with canadian sculptor Gerry Pethick he invented in Chicago the sandbox system as a vibration insulator and support for the holographic camera, surprising the scientific community with his holograms, at the same time as he sur prised the world, organizing the first art holography exhibition at Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Michigan on 1970.

However, in a move that speaks by itself about his ethical integrity, Cross preferred to get away from the research and development of laser-guided armament systems, the research topic at Willow Brook Laboratory at the University of Michigan which he was involved with, in order to take his laser and sound show through New York's small theaters.

After a short stay in Verde Valley (Arizona) with Peter and Ana Maria Nicholson he landed in San Francisco, where he opens his school, the first of this kind in the world, and later Multiplex Corporation, a company to commercially exploit the holographic stereogram technique, or white light integral holograms, invented by him.

The importance of his innovations is augmented by his strategy's generosity and lucidity at putting the new technique within the reach of the civil society, in the hands of artists and aficionados in general, thus liberating the medium from scientific, military and industrial circles and concerns.

The hologram The kiss (1974) with Pam Brazier as a model, is one of his classical images, perfected throughout the years and very significative of the type of holograms that were known at that time.