At the turn of the 20th century, Englishwoman Gabrielle Maud Vassal lived in Vietnam with her husband, French military doctor Joseph Jean Vassal. During her three-year stay in the country, Mrs. Vassal managed to travel the Vietnamese countryside, exploring the Central Highlands from her home base in Nha Trang as well as making trips up to Hanoi and down to Saigon.
The resulting images, featured on Reds, are a window into the world of French colonial Vietnam. While photos of this era are not so difficult to come by now, thanks to the internet, it's rare to see images from the country's colonial days which depict both Vietnamese and European residents together in a normal setting.
Take a look at Vassal's images, which were captured between 1904 and 1907, below:
Fishermen in Nha Trang bring their nets ashore.
A local woman stands in the garden outside Vassal's house in Nha Trang.
Vassal sits in a car in Nha Trang.
Cham pottery sold at a local market in Nha Trang.
A child stands on a cliff at Phu Yen's Ca Pass.
Farmers plow their fields using buffalo in central Vietnam.
A procession in a village in central Vietnam.
A young girl stands on a wooden bridge.
Children in the Central Highlands.
Local residents work as porters for a group of French tourists in the Central Highlands.
Vassal and local homeowners pose before a stilt house in the Central Highlands.
Central Highlands residents.
A stilt house belonging to Central Highlands minorities in the Dankia Lake area near Da Lat.
Hoan Kiem Lake's Turtle Tower, Hanoi, 1908.
A French passenger ship dwarfs a Vietnamese canoe on the Saigon River.
An elderly woman sits with young children in a garden.
A traditional opera performance in Nha Trang.
[Photos via Reds, Flickr user manhhai]
