Brian Day (b. 1977) is a third generation Detroit native. He discovered photography through the suggestion of a colleague and began exploring documentary and fine art projects around the city using film and digital cameras. Day cites as early influences the work of Gordon Parks, Garry Winogrand, and Alexey Titarenko, to name a few. His work has been collected and exhibited both locally and internationally, and published in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Scientific American Magazine, Esquire Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine Online, CNN, Adobe, Apple, The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, Hour Detroit Magazine, and Metro Times, among others.
Day was awarded a Documenting Detroit Fellowship in 2016, and was a recipient of the Michigan Chronicle’s Men of Excellence award in 2017, which recognizes creative and influential personalities making a positive impact on the city of Detroit. His series, Detroit From Above, has been much acclaimed and won First Place in Architecture at the International Photography Awards in 2018. In 2020, Day was commissioned by Apple to photograph a feature entitled, Hometown: Detroit. In 2021, Day’s work was added to the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts and he was awarded the Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellowship in Visual Arts. Day has served as a board member for the Documenting Detroit Fellowship program as well as Capturing Belief, a community focused visual storytelling program. He recently published his first book, Detroit From Above, through a collaboration with Peanut Press Books and Meridian Printing, which was named one of the best photography books of 2021. In April 2022, Day was the featured photographer for the Library of Congress/Levine-Ken Burns award winning documentary, "Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Bankruptcy of Detroit." In May 2022, Day was awarded the ADC Gold Cube in Photography at the 101st Annual ADC Awards.
In 2023, Days work was appeared in the Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition, "Conscious Response: Photographers Changing the Way We See", alongside the work of Gordon Parks, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Roy DeCarava and more. His solo exhibition, "Game Theory", is currently on view at M Contemporary Art gallery through November 28.
Day is also a technologist, working as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Henry Ford Health in Detroit; he holds a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in Health Informatics and Masters of Business Administration with a focus in Healthcare Management. Day is represented by M Contemporary Art gallery in Metro Detroit.