Posy Jackson (as everyone knew her) was an extraordinary human being with a huge heart and a supremely generous soul.
Posy was a graphic designer and photographer. She attended the Brearley School and graduated from the Garrison Forest School in Garrison (Maryland), Bradford Junior College and from the Parsons School of Design of the New School for Social Research in New York.
As someone who knew Posy from the early days of the Museum of Holography (the MOH, which she founded) I have a long view of the many things she accomplished in her life. I met her back in 1975, right after the first major exhibition of holography in New York that she curated with Jodie Burns at the International Center for Photography. This was a pivotal moment for holography, a chance for many people to see their first hologram, and inspiring many others who went on to create holographic art (notably Rudie Berkhout).
Posy’s college studies had focused on the early history of photography and her research into that period gave her a foundation to work from as she began to visualize what was needed to preserve early holographic history. Visiting many research labs in the early 1970s, she persuaded scientists and engineers to give her holograms from their early experiments. She was very aware (from her photography research) that the images from those early days quickly disappear if not saved for posterity under archival conditions. These became the foundation of the Museum of Holography’s collection.
The MOH quickly became a magnet for anyone who wanted to learn about this amazing new medium. With frequent new shows of holographic art from leading artists around the world, an Artist in Residence program with a professional holography lab in the basement of the Museum, a small theater where artists presented talks about their work, a holo shop selling commercial holograms (there were a lot being made as a cottage industry in those days), the MOH was the hub of a growing community of both holographic artists, scientists and engineers. Dennis Gabor visited as did Emmet Leith and Yuri Denysuk (and most of the leading scientists and engineers), and there were major exhibitions from artists like Margaret Benyon, Sam Moree, Rudie Berkhout, Anait and many others.
Posy supported individual artists by purchasing their holograms, encouraging their work as they evolved as artists in this new medium. She also nourished a nascent holographic community made up of artists, scientists, engineers and enthusiasts. In the summer she invited a huge crowd of us to her amazing home in Long Island, where we camped out for the weekend, cooking together, swimming in the ocean and thoroughly enjoying the company of other individuals like ourselves, all mad about holography. She called these events ‘The Moth Ball’ because holographers, like moths, are attracted to the light.
However, there came a point when she felt a need for change and she handed over the MOH to a new director. With a new partner in her life, Bailey Smith, she set sail for the Bahamas on his boat and began a new period in her life, living on the boat year-round.
Her work with holography continued as the Grants Officer for the Shearwater Foundation, where she was responsible for making surprise awards of $10,000 (worth about $25,000 in 2023 money) to many holographic artists and organisations supporting holography.
Funding from the Shearwater Foundation also made it possible for Ana Maria Nicholson and Dan Schweitzer to establish the HoloCenter as a not-for-profit organization offering artist residencies with access to Ana Maria’s pulsed laser.
After Agfa stopped production of holographic materials in the late 1990s, the Shearwater Foundation bought up the remaining available film and distributed it to many holographic artists, enabling them to keep working despite the absence of commercially available recording materials.
During her time in the Bahamas, Posy provided a college education for many young Bahamians from Great Exuma and continued to encourage and support them into adulthood. Posy was always generous, sharing what she had – mostly anonymously.
After her divorce from Bailey Smith, Posy took another major turn in her life. She attended Divinity School in Galveston Texas from which she emerged as an Episcopal Reverend. She ministered to the homeless in Galveston, Texas, established a retreat center near Ashville, North Carolina, and was always accompanied by a canine friend. Her last canine companion, Gracie, accompanied her on her last great adventure when she travelled in a small RV around the country visiting friends and seeing the beauty and grandeur of America.
She moved to Newport, Rhode Island in early 2020, just before the pandemic hit. For the following two years we were in frequent phone contact as I took over the reins of the HoloCenter and began the process of relocating this organization to Kingston, NY. Her unflagging support and enthusiasm for holography was ever present and a gift to me as I endeavoured to re-establish the HoloCenter while we were all retreating to avoid catching Covid.
Posy was an amazing human being, a true embodiment of unconditional love and boundless generosity. We will never know the extent of her generosity which was by her design. She passed on Valentine’s Day, a fitting day for one with so loving a spirit.
Instead of donations or memorials, this is Posy’s suggestion, in her own words: ‘Anyone wanting to do something in my memory can provide funds to a young person needing help in their education or any homeless person needing something to eat or some money to live on. Such a private act, no matter how small, would deeply honor me, and my life.’
