"South Africa, Still the Beloved Country"

Two blind children chat in a school in Kilpriver outside Johannesburg / Per-Anders Pettersson

The NY Times Photography blo, Lens, recently posted about a journalist's experience and affection for South Africa.

Per-Anders Pettersson fell in love with the country when he traveled there to cover the 1994 general election. Since then he has returned and his new project documents the varied lives in a society that is still slowly changing from it's sordid past. He calls it "In Transition".

As a photojournalist, I find his photographs stunning. Especially the one with all the women dancers wearing blue necklaces. The colors and the closeness, that Pettersson manages to capture really make his photographs stand out. It's also this closeness that make photojournalism so powerful and I think Pettersson's work shows how skillful he is at his craft.

The rest of his photos can be seen on his website: Per-Anders Pettersson

NY Times Blog entry: South Africa, Still the Beloved Country