Michael Jang

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Michael Jang (born 1951) is an American documentary photographer. He 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]

Contents

Early life and studies

Jang was born in Marysville, California in 1951. [3] [4] He studied at CalArts in Santa Clarita 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 and in 2013 he published the photos in a book titled College. [8] [9] While 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] and earned a 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 after his last Sex Pistols performance. [14]

Work

After art school, Michael 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 photography 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] Also in 2019, Atelier Editions published a retrospective monograph of his work titled Who is Michael Jang? [3] [21]

Publications

Collections

Jang's work is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art [4] and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. [23]

References

  1. ↑ "Michael Jang The Whole Story, 2022–2023 · SFMOMA". 2023-09-29. Archived from the original on 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  2. ↑ "Michael Jang The Whole Story, 2022–2023 · SFMOMA". 2023-09-29. Archived from the original on 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "A Rediscovered Archive from California in the Seventies". The New Yorker. 2019-08-24. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  4. 1 2 "Michael Jang · SFMOMA". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  5. ↑ "Michael Jang's Instagram Feed Offers a Window into CalArts in the '70s". 26 June 2014. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  6. ↑ "Michael Jang's College Series is the Unofficial Yearbook for His Graduating Class". 2014-06-17. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24– via vice.com.
  7. ↑ Griffin, Jonathan (23 August 2019). "The forgotten photos that made Michael Jang's name". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2019-11-21. Behind paywall.
  8. ↑ "See Raunchy Photos from CalArts in the 1970s". 2014-07-16. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  9. 1 2 "College by Michael Jang, second edition out now", Hamburger Eyes, May 16, 2013. Accessed August 1, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Asian Art Museum | Michael Jang". www.asianart.org. Archived from the original on 2019-08-25. Retrieved 2019-08-25.
  11. ↑ "Michael Jang: Summer Weather". Popular Photography. 17 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-25.
  12. ↑ "Michael Jang The Whole Story, 2022–2023 · SFMOMA". 2023-09-29. Archived from the original on 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  13. ↑ "Michael Jang's California | September 27, 2019 – January 18, 2020". Archived from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Iconic Photos from San Francisco's 70s Punk Scene". 2017-01-04. Archived from the original on 2019-08-05. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  15. ↑ "Michael Jang: Family snapshots become fine art". 2008-11-10. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  16. ↑ Seibel, Brendan (2009-10-21). "Punk Rock, DIY Access and Secret Success: The Photography of Michael Jang". Wired. Archived from the original on 2016-12-23. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  17. 1 2 "Michael Jang photo installed above Clement Street to promote new retrospective exhibition – Richmond District Blog". 23 August 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  18. ↑ "Michael Jang: The Jangs". 2015-06-05. Archived from the original on 2019-08-01. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  19. ↑ "Meet the Brady Bunch, Asian-American style — courtesy of photographer Michael Jang". Public Radio International. 5 September 2014. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  20. ↑ Coppelman, Alyssa (17 January 2013). "America's Next Top Weather Reporter: 1980s Edition". Slate. Archived from the original on 24 August 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  21. ↑ Kenneth Dickerman and Michael Jang, "Idiosyncratic photos show life in 1970s Los Angeles and San Francisco", Washington Post, February 21, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Who Is Michael Jang? by Michael Jang". Atelier Éditions. Archived from the original on 2019-10-03. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  23. ↑ "Michael Jang".
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