A Visual Discovery
Unseen in an exhibition context for fourty years, photographer Michael Jang presents a look into the lifestyle of a Chinese-American family in 70’s mainstream America.
Taking pictures in the spirit of casual family snapshots, Jang responded to ordinary moments in the daily lives of his extended relatives. By delving deeply into the lives of his own family and relatives, he captured sharp, spontaneous, and intimate images that reveal a singular view of America.
According to Jang, “things become invisible when you’ve lived with them [your family] your whole life. So I found that photographing relatives was a profoundly different experience. Every day was a new visual discovery. I saw things fresh for the first time and responded voraciously.”
Collectively and retrospectively, Jang’s photographs operate within a larger social and historical context, offering a warm and often humorous portrait of one family’s ongoing assimilation into American culture. Jang goes beyond documenting the Chinese-American experience to show us a family that is almost prototypically American.
‘The Jangs’ is on display from Thursday 2 June until Saturday 29 June 2013, at Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco.
