Here are links to some photos and projects that keep me thinking and looking:

Andrea Bruce photographs a seven-year-old Kurdish girl’s circumcision. A truly disturbing and graphic set of photos that, in my opinion, is an answer to questions of cultural relativity.

A casual yet consistent photo blog of daily life in Tehran, by a former LA resident who takes photos with a phone – Life Goes On in Tehran.

South African photographer Pieter Hugo takes uncanny and surprising staged portraits of a group of Nigerian performers who travel with hyenas and baboons. The Hyena and Other Men is a set of photos that makes you stop in your tacks and wonder which leash you’re holding, or who is holding yours.

Jim Chuchu is a comerical photographer based in Nairobi who has done, among other things, the Vuka campaign for the new mobile phone company Zain. His blog shows a bit about how he processes his photos and highlights other interesting things he’s up to.

Internationally acclaimed Samuel Fosso lives in Central African Republic where he runs a passport photo shop and small studio, though his playful dressed up self-portraits have been shown in major museums and galleries. He’s feautred in a piece called African Spirtis in a photography magazine called Foam.

Obama cakes in Kenya! (Hat tip Chirs Blattman)

New York Times is starting a series called One in Eight Million, about the kind of unique personalites that could only result from cramming just that many people into just that small of a space. (I especially liked the Wedding Wardrober piece.)

A new magazine called PopAfricana has the tagline “The African Book of Global Style.” The cool publication lives up to the tagline, and the editor blogs and looks great even in bad light.