From the measurement of the acoustic pressure on a cylindrical, two‐dimensional contour located close to the surface of an underwater, vibrating cylinder, the complete three‐dimensional sound field can be reproduced (reconstructed) with the aid of a computer. This reconstruction technique, called GENAH (generalized nearfield acoustical holography), is unlike conventional holography because it provides a super resolution image of the sound‐pressure field from the surface of the cylinder to the farfield. At the same time, GENAH reconstructs, from this two‐dimensional measurement, the vector velocity and the vector intensity fields (energy flow) in the nearfield of the source, and identifies modes of surface vibration of the cylinder. Experimental results are provided and the accuracy of GENAH is demonstrated by comparison with the two‐hydrophone technique.