F.
Holland Day : Suffering the Ideal by James Crump, F.
Holland Day
The short-lived career of nineteenth-century
photographer F. Holland Day is the basis for this important new
book. Although he is perhaps best known for the controversial
"sacred" subjects in which he posed himself as Jesus
Christ, Day quickly moved to the forefront of American photography
with his portraiture, and later his mythological images that
featured the male nude. In 1900, Day challenged Alfred Stieglitz
as the leading spokesman for American photography by organizing
the first major European exhibition of American photographers held
at the Royal Photographic Society in London. Critic and historian
James Crump offers new commentary on Day's activities as a
publisher, his scandalous relationship with British Decadence, and
the reasons for Day's relative marginalization in the history of
photography.
Day was probably the first great photographer of
the male nude. A friend of Oscar Wilde and an early proponent of
gay rights, women's rights, and racial equality, scandal
surrounded him and caused his marginalization. The book is
accompanied by a lively essay by James Crump that explores Day's
use of history, myth, and sexuality to construct his singular
vision at the fin de siecle.
"F.Holland Day: Suffering the Ideal
is a welcome rehabilitation... and makes a fair case for Day as a
serious minded interpreter of male beauty and as a skillful
portraitist." -- The Times Literary Supplement
(London)
"Once considered an important photographer,
Day eventually became a figure relegated to the margins of
history, because of how he went against social convention. Today a
new book is putting his achievements back into focus... It was
forgotten that he had once been considered one of this country's
most important photographers, that he had played a critical role
in bringing photography out of the realm of science and into that
of fine art..." -- Interview Magazine, April 1996
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