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M
ore than 60 images of Ha-
noi were taken by French
photographer Léon Busy
from 1914 to 1917. The im-
ages reflect Hanoi’s distinctive charac-
teristics from its architecture and lakes
to everyday street scenes. Busy’s project
was commissioned by French banker,
Albert Kahn, who became very rich at
the beginning of the 20th century. He
came from a family that was exiled
when a part of France came under Ger-
man occupation.
When he became prosperous he be-
gan to donate money to non-profit as-
sociations. He also funded his own pro-
jects, such as the Archives of the Planet
to collect cultural information from all
around the world for preservation.
Kahn recruited many talented
photographers from more than 50
countries to take photographs around
the globe. Over the course of 22 years
he amassed a collection of 72,000 col-
our photographs and 183,000 meters
of film.
The recent exhibition of Busy’s
work in Hanoi celebrated the good re-
lationship between the people of Hanoi
and Paris and helped mark the com-
memorative year of Vietnam - France
relations as well as the 25th anniversary
of the Ile-de-France region’s coopera-
tion with Hanoi.
The 60 autochrome images were
the very first colour photographs of
Hanoi. “This kind of picture was taken
before the invention of colour film.
The photos were processed as slides
and projected to a screen. This is why
we chose to show them using a retro-
lighting system to create the best pos-
sible picture quality and replicate the
way they would originally have been
shown,” said Cerise Emmanuel Cerise,
one of the show’s organisers.
For Cerise, it is the colour that makes
this exhibition unique: “We all know
there are a lot of old photographs of Ha-
noi in black and white, but having them
in colour gives us a lot of other informa-
tion about the clothing worn by average
people and monks, plus the colour of
things being sold in shops,” he said.
According to historical researcher
Duong Trung Quoc, Kahn may have
been unhappy with his business at the
end of his life, but he left a very valu-
able cultural record.
Quoc especially appreciates the
pictures which capture the landscape,
traditional holidays and everyday life.
Adding value to the exhibition, two
French scholars wrote descriptions for
each image. “Emmanuel Poisson, a his-
torian, and Dinh Trong Hieu, an eth-
nologist, conducted thorough research
to give us knowledge about Vietnamese
culture. Their work is both precise and
understandable and it can be shared
with everyone,” Cerise said.
The exhibition has closed in Hanoi,
but it will run in Paris from September.
44
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ART SCENE
A colourful
history
A unique exhibition of
rare colour photographs
taken in the early 1900s
went on show in Hanoi
last month.
Bich Ngoc
delves into the history
behind the images.
LIFE STYLE