Michael Jang (born 1951) is an American documentary photographer. Jang is best known for his 1970s photographs of life in Los Angeles and San Francisco,[1] with subjects ranging from his family to punk bands and street scenes.[2]
Early life
Jang was born in Marysville, California in 1951.[3][4] Jang studied at CalArts in Los Angeles, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1973.[5][6] Initially a design major, Jang switched to photography after being exposed to the work of Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander.[7] While at CalArts, Jang photographed the raunchiness of the student environment; in 2013 he published the photos in a book titled College.[8][9] During his time at CalArts he used fake press credentials to access events and parties at The Beverly Hilton hotel, where he was able to photograph a range of people from the unknown to famous musicians and politicians.[3][10][11]
Later in the 1970s, he moved to San Francisco,[12] where he would receive an MFA degree from the San Francisco Art Institute.[3][13] While in grad school he photographed the San Francisco punk rock scene, including a portrait of Johnny Rotten following his last Sex Pistols performance.[14]
Work
Following art school, Jang continued to pursue creative projects while earning a living as a commercial photographer in San Francisco.[15] He was relatively unknown as an artist until 2002, when the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired several of his photographs.[16] The subjects of his work are mainly vernacular and street photography.[17] His 1973 series The Jangs documents the assimilation of his Asian-American family.[18][19] His 1983 series Summer Weather documented auditioning weather reporters.[20]
In 2019 the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts staged a retrospective exhibition of his work.[17] The same year, Atelier Editions published a retrospective monograph of his work titled Who is Michael Jang?[3][21]
Publications
- Far East of Suburbia. Michael Jang, n.d. OCLC 993600565.
- The Jangs. Michael Jang, 2009. OCLC 958691954.
- One of a Kind. [Los Angeles]: Hamburger Eyes, 2011. OCLC 971973191.
- Summer Weather. San Francisco: Owl & Tiger Books, 2012. ISBN 9780615596327.
- College. [San Francisco]: Hamburger Eyes, 2013.[9] Special edition, 2014. OCLC 880357874.
- The Jangs × Los Angeles. Los Angeles, California: Pascale Georgiev and Kingston Trinder, 2014. OCLC 968799880.
- To Mike. Los Angeles: Atelier, 2016. OCLC 1038534492.
- Who is Michael Jang? Los Angeles: Atelier, 2019. ISBN 978-0997593594. With an introduction by Sandra S. Phillips, a foreword by Erik Kessels and texts by Kingston Trinder. Edition of 3000 copies.[22]
Collections
Jang's work is held in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art[4] and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.[23]