The Seven Last Words of Christ by F. Holland Day, 1898. (Click for full view)
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do
Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise
Woman, behold your son: behold your mother
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,
I thirst
It is finished
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit
From 1895 to 1898 Day undertook a project that was without precedent: an extended series—some 250 negatives—showing scenes of the life of Christ, from the Annunciation to the Resurrection, in which he played the title role. In 1890 Day had traveled to Oberammergau to see the famous once-a-decade Passion Plays and may well have seen a similar multimedia presentation that toured the East Coast, including Boston, later in the 1890s. For his own production, Day starved himself, let his beard grow long, and imported cloth and a cross from Syria. Just prior to the re-enacted Crucifixion, he made this series of close-up self-portraits—the most powerful images in his entire series—which represent Christ’s seven last words.
For many people, Day’s self-portraits as Christ were—and remain—unsettling, as one tries to reconcile their fact and fiction. Day defended the use of photography for sacred subjects as a matter of artistic freedom, and Steichen wrote, “Few paintings contain as much that is spiritual and sacred in them as do the ‘Seven Words’ of Mr. Day… . If we knew not its origin or its medium how different would be the appreciation of some of us, and if we cannot place our range of vision above this prejudice the fault lies wholly with us. If there are limitations to any of the arts, they are technical; but of the motif to be chosen the limitations are dependent on the man—if he is a master he will give us great art and ever exalt himself.” |x|
