The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for forming a hologram from a mask. According to the invention a photoresist is used as the holographic recording medium and the planes of polarisation of the object and reference beams incident on the holographic recording medium are arranged such that their polarisation vectors are substantially mutually orthogonal in the holographic recording medium and such that the polarisation vectors of the incident and totally internally reflected reference beams are also substantially orthogonal. Preferably, just the transmission hologram is formed in the holographic recording layer.