Résumé En juillet 1898, Fred Holland Day après avoir jeûné des semaines et traversé une véritable épreuve pour acquérir tous les composants d’une authentique passion christique expose son corps amaigri au martyr de la crucifixion. Quel insaisissable essaie-t-il d’atteindre en en faisant 250 clichés? Nous nous proposons d’analyser ses divers essais d’autoportraits christiques — The Seven Last Words of Christ, Crucifixion, The Entombment, Resurrection from the Tomb— en utilisant la micro analyse tactile inspirée de Carlo Ginsburg en histoire et d’Aloïs Riegl en histoire de l’art et proche de l’objectivation participante de Bronislaw Malinowski. Cette méthode consiste à procéder à une lecture de la photographie en partant de l’image elle-même, en recherchant les enjeux conscients et inconscients qui s’y développent, et en établissant des correspondances étroites avec la production, la recherche esthétique et les cercles ou réseaux professionnels dans lesquels le photographe s’insérait ou développait sa pratique. Nous verrons dès lors comment Fred Holland Day s’ancre dans la pratique de l’autoportrait christique et celle de la série photographique pratiquée à la même époque par d’autres photographes (Muybridge). Nous constaterons ses efforts pour franchir les limites du genre en défendant l’usage de la nudité en photographie par ses références nombreuses à la sculpture classique (Laocoon), à la peinture allemande (Holbein) et à la poésie romantique (Keats). Nous analyserons également comment ces essais christiques sont déviés de leur objectif premier en s’insérant dans les différentes installations que Fred Holland Day fit pour des expositions. Ils acquièrent alors un nouveau sens et constituent désormais un véritable parcours photographique défendant l’amour libre et la beauté du corps masculin proche des idéaux de ses amis lettrés (Oscar Wilde). Nous conclurons en montrant que ces autoportraits christiques qui continuent de susciter de multiples critiques sont à considérer paradoxalement comme le chant du cygne du pictorialisme et par ses aspects novateurs comme une mise en abyme d’une pratique photographique révolutionnaire. Summary After having fasted for weeks and gone through a real ordeal to acquire all the elements needed for an authentic Christic passion, Fred Holland Day started taking pictures of his starved body on the crucifix in july 1898. Which unattainable goal was he trying to reach in these 250 photographs ? We propose to analyse the different essays of his Christic self portraits —The Seven Last Words of Christ, Crucifixion, The Entombment, Resurrection from the Tomb— using the tactile micro analysis, a technique inspired by historian Carlo Ginsburg and art historian Aloïs Riegl, close to the participatory objectivation of Bronislaw Malinowski. This method consists in reading a photograph by starting from the photograph itself, analysing the conscious or unconscious issues at stake, and establishing a close connection between the production, the aesthetic research and the circles or professional networks the photographer belonged to. We will first consider how Fred Holland Day used the already existing Christic practice of self portraiture, and will then evoke the link with serial photography used at that time by other photographers like Edweard Muybridge. We will see Day’s efforts to transcent the limits of the genre by defending nudidy in photography. We will see his numerous references to classical sculptures (Laocoon), to German painting (Holbein) and romantic poetry (Keats). We will at last analyse how these Christic self portraits are deviated from their first objective when used in the numerous installations F. H. Day made for his exhibitions. They then acquire a new meaning and constitute a photographic trail defending free love and the beauty of the male body close to the ideals of his literary friends (Oscar Wilde). We will conclude by showing how these Christic self portraits which still receive many criticisms must paradoxically be considered as the swan song of pictorialism and, because of of these new aspects, as a mise en abyme of a revolutionary practice of photography. ; Summary After having fasted for weeks and gone through a real ordeal to acquire all the elements needed for an authentic Christic passion, Fred Holland Day started taking pictures of his starved body on the crucifix in july 1898. Which unattainable goal was he trying to reach in these 250 photographs ? We propose to analyse the different essays of his Christic self portraits —The Seven Last Words of Christ, Crucifixion, The Entombment, Resurrection from the Tomb— using the tactile micro analysis, a technique inspired by historian Carlo Ginsburg and art historian Aloïs Riegl, close to the participatory objectivation of Bronislaw Malinowski. This method consists in reading a photograph by starting from the photograph itself, analysing the conscious or unconscious issues at stake, and establishing a close connection between the production, the aesthetic research and the circles or professional networks the photographer belonged to. We will first consider how Fred Holland Day used the already existing Christic practice of self portraiture, and will then evoke the link with serial photography used at that time by other photographers like Edweard Muybridge. We will see Day’s efforts to transcent the limits of the genre by defending nudidy in photography. We will see his numerous references to classical sculptures (Laocoon), to German painting (Holbein) and romantic poetry (Keats). We will at last analyse how these Christic self portraits are deviated from their first objective when used in the numerous installations F. H. Day made for his exhibitions. They then acquire a new meaning and constitute a photographic trail defending free love and the beauty of the male body close to the ideals of his literary friends (Oscar Wilde). We will conclude by showing how these Christic self portraits which still receive many criticisms must paradoxically be considered as the swan song of pictorialism and, because of of these new aspects, as a mise en abyme of a revolutionary practice of photography.