In Past Show

Proximities 2: Knowing Me, Knowing You at Asian Art Museum

Though he has been photographing since the 1970s, when he began to push photography beyond its perceived limits during its golden age in America, Michael Jang’s offbeat, off-the-cuff images have only recently reached wider audiences and gained critical acclaim. After decades of concentrating primarily on portrait and editorial commercial work, and leaving his own pictures largely unseen, he began to revisit his trove of images in the early 2000s. These images, taken in the now-iconic snapshot style, reflect the influence of the street photography of Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand, and Lisette Model, with whom he studied. Claiming, “I used my camera to get myself into situations that most of us would have no business being in,” Jang has captured celebrity-laden parties in Beverly Hills, Cuban youth, South City gangs, and his own Chinese-American family with vivacity and decisiveness.