Dear friends of Lens Culture— We’re very excited to announce this all-new issue of Lens Culture. It’s online now, and filled with an eclectic, global hit of some of the best photography that is happening around the world. All of the winners of our first International Exposure Awards are presented in this issue. These 29 photographers were selected as the best from work submitted by photographers in 48 countries on six continents! Also in this issue: a preview of 167 photos from the upcoming Paris Photo, (perhaps the world’s largest yearly international photography fair and marketplace). Plus, work from the 12 finalists of this year’s Prix Pictet, and the 20 finalists for the BMW prize for photography. In addition to our archive of over 40 audio conversations with contemporary photographers, we’ve just completed our first video interview with French photographer Klavdij Sluban, who has conducted photography workshops for more than 15 years with teenage prisoners in juvenile jails in the ex-USSR, France, Ireland, Guatemala and Salvador. His story is passionate and powerful, as are his own photos from inside these prison walls. Photographer Laura Sackett has been exploring the phenomenon of ambient visual interactions via the internet (with programs like iChat) as she observes her own three teenagers and their friends in everyday virtual interactions. Her Liminal Portraits capture a particularly pointed 21st century sensibility of intimacy, technology, identity and art. Russian photographer Lucia Ganieva has documented the last-standing textile factories in a small town in Russia, by creating photographic triptychs of machinery, printed fabrics, and the women who have been working there for generations. You’ll also discover reviews of some great new photobooks, exhibition notes, some fantastic new (very affordable) original photographic prints for sale, and lots more. So dig in, and enjoy! And if you like what you find, please tell your friends. Cheers, Jim Casper, editor