Photographic work is regarded as objective, for it normally reveals what it is. But photographic work is subjective, too, for different photographers look at things from different angles and have different aesthetic standards.

I appreciate the project '99 Focus on China, which puts the Chinese nature and culture, in an open fashion, into the viewfinders of foreign photographers. May I congratulate the success of the project and thank all the participants for their hard work. The pictures they left behind are much valued and China in 1999, which their works try to document, will be long remembered.

Sun Jiazheng

Minister of Culture

People's Republic of China

December, 1999