ANN ARBOR, MI.- UMMA Off/Site presents Out of the Ordinary / Extraordinary: Japanese Contemporary Photography, on view June 16–September 16, 2007. This exhibition of works by eleven young photographers-most of whom are unknown to North American audiences-challenges conventional Western assumptions about Japanese aesthetics and culture. Pregnant men posing in a fertility clinic; strangers photographed from outside the windows of their homes; a young woman dressed up in the various costumes of Tokyo teenagers, exploring consumer-oriented notions of “youth”: these are but a few of the puzzling and provocative images presented. Michiko Kasahara, one of Japan's leading curators of contemporary art, has chosen artists whose photographic vision probes the many layers of social and moral anxiety that underlie a surface of prosperity and well-being.

Out of the Ordinary/Extraordinary is organized and circulated by The Japan Foundation and accompanied by an illustrated catalogue.

This exhibition was curated by Michiko Kasahara at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and organized by the Japan Foundation, Tokyo. The presentation in Ann Arbor is co-organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Japan Foundation, New York, and supported in part by Rudolf Arnheim and the Japan Business Society of Detroit Foundation.