Strike Anywhere’s Michael Jacobs Asks “Who is Michael Jang?”

Who is Michael Jang? A question that many have sought to answer, including Strike Anywhere director, Michael Jacobs, in his latest documentary on the enigmatic commercial and street photographer and Bay Area cult icon, Michael Jang.

A man of many characters and figure of mystique, Michael Jang’s photography started as candid snapshots documenting the life and personalities of his Asian-American family in the ’70s. Evolving into black and white street photography and portraits of icons including Robin Williams, David Bowie and The Sex Pistols, Jang’s photography was off-the-cuff, humourous and honest – portraying the sense that he was exactly in the right place at the right time.

Despite this, much of Jang’s work sat boxed away until recent years, as he pursued a career as a commercial photographer - documenting everything from Bar Mitzvahs, family portraits and weddings, to pay the bills and fill the fridge.

After sharing a selection of prints with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2002, Jang’s work became more well known, especially in the Bay Area, but it was the covid-19 pandemic that saw awareness of him and his art rise. Pasting San Francisco neighbourhoods with larger-than-life reproductions of his prints, Jang tackled anti-Asian rhetoric that grew during the period, as well as the closure of museums and galleries – using the street as a canvas instead.

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