Michael Jang

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, with subjects ranging from his family to punk bands and street scenes.

Jang was born in Marysville, California in 1951. Jang studied at CalArts in Los Angeles, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1973. Initially a design major, Jang switched to photography after being exposed to the work of Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. While at CalArts, Jang photographed the raunchiness of the student environment; in 2014 he published the photos in a book titled College. 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.

Later in the 1970s, he moved to San Francisco, where he would receive anMFA degree from the San Francisco Art Institute. While in grad school he photographed the San Francisco punk rock scene, including a portrait of Johnny Rotten following his last Sex Pistols performance.

Following art school, Jang continued to pursue creative projects while earning a living as a commercial photographer in San Francisco. He was relatively unknown as an artist until 2002, when the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired several of his photographs. The subjects of his work are mainly vernacular and street photography. His 1973 series The Jangs documents the assimilation of his Asian-American family. His 1983 series Summer Weather documented auditioning weather reporters.

In 2019 the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts staged a retrospective exhibition of his work. The same year, Atelier Editions published a retrospective monograph of his work titled Who is Michael Jang?

• 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.

Jang's work is held in the following public collection:

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA