CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/11/2019

Storytelling and misdirection in staff favorite, 'Who Is Michael Jang?'

"At Home with the Jangs" (1973) is reproduced from Who Is Michael Jang?, the first major monograph on this stealth-great photographer who flew under the radar for the majority of the last half-century before being discovered by SFMOMA curator Sandra S. Phillips in 2001. Known in particular for his uniquely telling family photographs, he’s become the ultimate photographer’s photographer, counting artists like Alec Soth and Erik Kessels among his greatest fans. Kessels notes, “It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what makes Jang’s work so captivating, which is precisely what makes Jang’s work so captivating… He’s a storyteller, skilled in the art of deception, or perhaps it’s more misdirection. At first glance at one of his images you get one story, look again and you’ll get three others. He’s a master of photographic omission, his work is as much about what’s not there as what is.”