This 1900 platinum print by F. Holland Day is titled “Pepita.”

This 1901 platinum print of F. Holland Day in Algerian costume was taken by Frederick Henry Evans.

BRUNSWICK – Artistic images by pioneering Boston photographer F. Holland Day are on exhibit at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art through Dec. 23.

Day (1864-1933) is known best for his early 20th century advocacy of photography as a valid new medium of artistic expression.

Focusing mainly on images of the artist himself, “Making a Presence: F. Holland Day in Artistic Photography” also includes some photographs taken in Maine, where Day summered in Georgetown in the early part of the 20th century.

Day first distinguished himself in literary circles as a critic, bibliophile,and co-founder of the progressive publishing firm Copeland and Day. By the turn of the 20th century, he had established an international reputation as a leading Pictorialist photographer.

Embracing innovative practices and such new movements as Symbolism, Day made a remarkable contribution both to the history of American photography and to the flowering of Boston as a cultural center in the 1890s. 

“Making a Presence” presents a dynamic composite portrait of the iconoclastic, independent artist. It includes about 100 works ranging from Day’s self-portraiture, including his Jesus Christ series, to expressive portraits of him by such noted photographers as Frederick Evans, Gertrude Kasebier, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Clarence White and Edward Steichen.

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; Thursday until 8:30 p.m.; and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum.

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