I was born and grew up in South Africa and immigrated to America as a teenager in 1987 when the South African political situation was looking bleak. Ironically, only a few years after my family left, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and enormous political and social changes took place. While I had been longing to visit South Africa for many years since I'd left, I knew that when I did return, I wanted to do some photojournalistic project that would allow me to really see how the country had changed (or not changed) and experience what life was like there now rather than just return as an expatriate or tourist. My dream to return to the country of my birth to do such a project began to materialize when I received a grant from the Alexia Foundation for a proposal to document South Africa's first post-apartheid generation for my master's project in 2001.

Despite the crime rate and the struggles South Africa still faces, it is seen as the the world's primary contemporary example of a country that made a relatively peaceful transition from racial and ethnic conflict to cohabitation. The following images are from a series of photographic essays that follow the lives of seven South African children who were all born the year of South Africa's first free elections (1994). The children were drawn from different racial and economic backgrounds in and around the Johannesburg area.