Femme Lahobé. Senegal, West Africa

Fortier was born in Nantes, France in 1862 and became interested in photography at an early age. He moved to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in 1886 and opened a photography studio, specialising in portraits and landscapes. In 1900, Fortier began to focus on documentary photography, capturing the daily life and culture of the Vietnamese people. He travelled extensively throughout the country, documenting everything from street scenes to religious ceremonies. Fortier's photographs were highly regarded for their technical excellence and artistic composition. He won numerous awards for his work, including a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. Fortier's photographs are now considered an important historical record of Vietnam in the early 20th century. They offer a glimpse of a time and place that has since been transformed by war and modernisation. Fortier died in Saigon in 1928, but his legacy lives on through his photographs, which continue to inspire and educate people around the world.