July 8, 2018 / Photography News / Born 154 years ago, on Fred Holland Day was a dedicated aesthete and well-known figure in turn-of-the-century Boston. He was one of the earliest advocates of Pictorial photography in America and, like Alfred Stieglitz (with whom he corresponded until they had a serious disagreement around 1902), he tirelessly wrote articles, mounted exhibitions, and encouraged like-minded photographers who supported the medium's artistic potential. July 8, 1864,was a dedicated aesthete and well-known figure in turn-of-the-century Boston. He was one of the earliest advocates of Pictorial photography in America and, like(with whom he corresponded until they had a serious disagreement around 1902), he tirelessly wrote articles, mounted exhibitions, and encouraged like-minded photographers who supported the medium's artistic potential.



Day's life and works had long been controversial, since his photographic subjects were often nude male youths. Pam Roberts, in F. Holland Day (Waanders Pub, 2001; catalog of a Day exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum) writes: "Day never married and his sexual orientation, whilst it is widely assumed that he was homosexual, because of his interests, his photographic subject matter, his general flamboyant demeanor, was, like much else about him, a very private matter."





Day spent much time among poor immigrant children in Boston, tutoring them in reading and mentoring them. One in particular, the 13-year-old Lebanese immigrant Kahlil Gibran, went on to fame as the author of The Prophet.





Kahlil Gibran in Middle Eastern costume with leopard skin and staff, seated, ca. 1898, F. Holland Day. 1 photographic print on 2 mounts: platinum print. Forms part of the Louise Imogen Guiney Collection. Anonymous gift to the Library of Congress, 1934.

Probably his best-known work is an 1898 series of more than 250 photographs portraying the Passion of Christ, in which he posed as Jesus, training for the role by losing weight and letting his hair and beard grow. What is usually shown from this series is the group known as “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” seven portraits that refer to Jesus’ statements from the time of his crucifixion until his death. In each photograph Mr. Day, in character, assumed what he felt were facial expressions consonant with Jesus’ ordeal.

The Last Seven Words of Christ, 1898, F. Holland Day