An apparatus for producing a volumetric display includes a scanning collimated light source that creates an image by illuminating a suspension of light-scattering particles in an optically transparent medium with a collimated beam, where the brightness of the collimated beam is modulated at each moment in time by an amount that is dependent upon the momentary direction of the beam and also on the distance of the scattering particle encountered by the beam at that moment. A method for producing a volumetric display. An apparatus for producing a volumetric display includes a light source for providing light. The apparatus includes a mechanism for producing a volumetric image with the light from the light source. The method includes the steps of producing light from a light source. There is the step of producing a volumetric image with the light from the light source.