Now for something light, entertaining, educational and inspiring.

Thanks to Colleen Leonard (famous Canadian photographer and former Lens Culture assistant editor) for sharing this with us, via Hyperallergic.

Canadian photojournalist Donald Weber first went to Ukraine during the Orange Revolution of 2004, on assignment. Following that first trip, he soon returned, and spent the next six years in Russia and Ukraine trying to photograph contemporary life, and its hardships, as well as the vestiges of a still-powerful, hidden system.

Interrogations is the result of his personal quest to uncover the hidden meaning of private, unpleasant encounters with unrestricted Power. It is a simple, elegant book that sears itself into your memory.

See many more photographs, and read the compelling interview with Donald Weber, in Lens Culture.

In an age where black-and-white film and traditional photo paper and chemicals are disappearing from the marketplace, Leica Camera has launched a risky bet that high-quality black-and-white photography will continue to be in demand in the 21st century.

Their bet? A brand new digital camera that does not take color photos. The Leica M Monochrom camera is optimized to capture the fullest possible tonal range for smooth, rich, super-high-resolution black-and-white photography. I'm not a technical expert, but apparently by creating a sensor that ignores the typical RGB filters, each pixel of the new 18 megapixel camera records a subtle variation of black, white or grey only — a technique that is far superior to converting typical RGB color digital photos to black-and-white.

And indeed, Leica camera enthusiasts from all corners of the globe (including many, many high-profile professional photographers) flew in to Berlin last week and cheered loudly as they got the first look at Leica’s latest release — “the world’s first digital camera exclusively for full-frame, 35 mm black-and-white photography.”

Lens Culture was honored to be invited to this special event, and to meet the enthusiastic international crowd at C|O Berlin photography gallery in Berlin. Award-winning Magnum photographer, Jacob Aue Sobol, was one of the experts who got to test-drive the new camera before its public release. Sixty of his stunning new digital photos were on display during the event. We're including three of those images here. And be sure to look for a great video interview with Sobol in Lens Culture in our next issue.

For more details on the new camera, check the Leica website.

Photographer/philosopher Max de Esteban creates stunning, old-world-type portraits, and groups them by philosophical themes. Above: "Doubt is arguably the origin of rebellion against darkness." (excerpt from long, eloquent essay).

See, and read more in the new photobook review in Lens Culture.

Cig Harvey is a photographer driven by conceptual work that vibrates with super-saturated color and careful premeditated composition. See more images, and read the review, in the latest issue of Lens Culture.

Discover great photography and new photobooks touching on an incredibly diverse variety of themes, styles and cultures. Included in this issue, so far:

• On the foggy fringes of explosive growth in China
• A photo diary of a manic road trip around Iceland
• Re-enactment of a real serial murder by teenage Americans
• Centuries of imperialism and war in Afghanistan
• Modern day street photography in Paris
• Steaming mountains of garbage recycled in Phnom Penh
• Dying traditions in Transylvania
• Academic research about Francesca Woodman in Rome
• Grappling with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Extended family-based organized crime in London
• Overstepping the boundaries of appropriation
• A (photo) graphic novel with no linear narrative
• Celebration of supersaturated color and personal whimsy
• Duane Michals photographs Magritte
• Photographic philosophical musings on personal identity post 9/11
• An overview of contemporary Iranian photography
• A reprint of a classic book about sexual identity in 1950s’ Paris
• History of Kodak Girl advertising campaigns
• Up-close photographs of criminal interrogations in the Ukraine

We hope you enjoy this new issue. Be sure to tell all of your friends, too, okay?

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Suitably creepy, and probably NSFW. Discovered via Wired's Raw File Blog.

Already an award-winning photographer of contemporary Afghanistan, Simon Norfolk returned this time to follow the footsteps of a relatively unknown Irish war photographer, John Burke, who had documented the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880). An immensely engaging book presents the works of both photographers, as well as compelling essays that offer context to this subtle and complex work.

This work is also currently on exhibit at the Tate Modern in London, and it won a World Press Photo Award, too. It is highly unusual for a single body of work to be lauded by both the fine art world and praised by the toughest critics in documentary photojournalism.

See 20 photographs, and read more about the book, here in Lens Culture.

White South African teens wrestle with an uncertain identity. An extreme right-wing group is teaching young Afrikaners to eschew Nelson Mandela's vision of a multicultural rainbow nation. The fringe group Kommandokorps organizes camps during school holidays where Afrikaner teenagers learn self-defense and how to combat a perceived black enemy. The group’s leader, self-proclaimed ‘Colonel’ Franz Jooste, served with the South African Defence Force under the old apartheid regime. The teenagers are taught (brainwashed might be a more accurate term) that they are their own people — not South Africans but Afrikaners — and that they shouldn't integrate in the new democratic South Africa.

This disturbing multimedia production about the racist, right-wing organization was awarded 1st Prize in Multimedia by World Press Photo. The story was made by Dutch journalist/videographer Elles van Gelder & Dutch photojournalist Ilvy Njiokiktjien in conjunction with their production company froginatent.com.

In many ways, this multimedia approach (artfully blending video, still photography, sound, interviews, investigative journalism, and compelling story-telling) is the ideal way to raise public awareness of these atrocities. In fact, it stirred up so much controversy in South Africa, that the racist leader depicted in this piece went into hiding and changed his physical appearance out of fear. It's also interesting to note that this is the very first multimedia production put together by this young team. We're eager to see more from them in the future.

While Chinese government video camera surveillance continues, surrounding Weiwei's home 24/7, he is forbidden to broadcast from his own "surveillance" cameras he set up inside his own home.

Read Weiwei's editorial essay about censorship in The Guardian, and commentary about the same in The New York Times this weekend.

The artist and dissident Weiwei writes that despite powerful government controls, harassment and censorship of the media (even Google backed out of China under pressure), that:

“The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It’s as simple as that.”

Since its inception in August 2011, FOLi or Museo de la Fotografía Lima has undertaken several initiatives in support and promotion of contemporary photography in South America, especially bridging the gap between photographers and their audience.

In a low-cost, experimental approach at the first Photography Biennale of Lima, FOLi launched a new community project: FOLiLAB.

Four shipping containers – placed in the iconic Kennedy Park in the Miraflores district – provide a unique platform to introduce contemporary photography to a broader public. The four containers offer different spaces and ways of approaching photography – each box reveals a personalized identity, with different functionalities. It's cool.

For more info: bienalfotolima.com and foli.org.pe.