With youthful disobedience, Michael Jang (b. 1951) secretly documented the sub-cultural circles for an underbelly San Francisco of which he took part in shaping, pioneered the visibility of Asian American culture through images of his imaginative home life; and, with a keen sense of timing, iconic moments in California history. A subversive and brazen photographer, Jang captured images from the front lines or behind-the-scenes of historic events, making fake press passes and sneaking in to places he shouldn’t be to get exclusive shots from a fresh perspective. His determined approach was textured by his signature spontaneous style, exposing a narrative of pure joy, candid jest and affective poses of celebrity and media culture in the 1970’s, a time marked by simple bedlam.

His retrospective at McEvoy Foundation is curated by Sandra Phillips, who was chief curator of photography at SFMOMA for thirty years.