| Émile Gsell Mnong warriors, Vietnam 1865 (ca) Albumen print 230 x 180 mm (9 x 7 in) Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books Courtesy of Bernard J Shapero Rare Books LL/30102 Emile Gsell (1838 - 1879) was a French photographer who worked in Southeast Asia, becoming the first commercial photographer based in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). He participated in at least three scientific expeditions, and the images he produced from the first, to Angkor, are amongst the earliest photographs of that site. Though he died at an early age he managed to make several hundred photographs in just over a dozen years featuring a wide range of subject matter including architecture, landscapes, and studio, ethnographic and genre portraits.
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