Photonic band gap materials are holograms with extremely high refractive index contrasts. The refractive index function can be approximated by a small number of plane waves, as a consequence of the photonic crystal periodicity. Photonic crystals can hence be constructed with a simple holographic recording of a very small number of optical plane waves, and appear in this regard as the simplest holograms. Various photonic band gap structures are theoretically analysed and those concepts are illustrated experimentally with the fabrication of a two-dimensional triangular lattice in GaAs. The extension of the method to the three-dimensional diamond structure is discussed. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.