This month Dodge & Burn kicks off a monthly series of posts about new photography books and shows. Feel free to send me any tips or announcements to contribute.

Mil Besos: 1,000 Kisses (Rizzoli)
This book is a must-have for your coffee-table collection, featuring dramatic photographs of the flamenco women of Spain shot by Colombian-born Ruven Afanador with an introduction by Christian Dior’s head designer John Galliano plus contributions from fashion icons Diane Von Furstenberg, Iman and Heidi Klum.

You may recognize Afanador’s unique style from his many editorials in Vogue, Vanity Fair and Italian Elle, among others.

Preview these gritty yet elegant black and white fashion portraits: watch this video of a public exhibition of Ruven Afanador’s Mil Besos in Sevilla Spain on the Avenida de la Constitución, with music by the brilliant duo Bebo y Cigala. The book will be released on September 29, 2009.

If you like this work, you might also like Afanador’s debut book Torero, portrait series of bullfighters from Spain and Latin America.

Laogai: The Machinery of Repression in China (Umbrage Editions)
Released to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Communist rule in China, edited by Nicole Kempton and Nan Richardson, with essays from renowned dissident Harry Wu and eminent China scholar Andrew Nathan.

An eloquent and vivid summary in shocking, never-before-seen photographs smuggled out of the People Republic of China, LAOGAI exposes the human rights record of the world’s most authoritarian state—a nation whose own remarkable transformation has not extended to the basic demands of its people’s freedom.

Watch a slide show of the photographs on the Umbrage Gallery blog.

Samaná: Images of the Dominican Republic @ Hostos Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
Sept 28 — Nov 7, 2009
Opening Reception: Oct 7, 5 – 9 pm ET

An exhibition of photographs by José Bermúdez, Marino Corniel, Wallace Edgecombe, Elaine Eversley, Ryan Mann-Hamilton, Carlos Sanabria and Sterling Wadsworth.

In other photography news, congratulations to photojournalist Lynsey Addario who has won a MacArthur grant for her depiction of contemporary life in Darfur, Afghanistan and Iraq.

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