Born into an illustrious Annamite family, an attorney and a writer, Doan Vinh Thuan met in Baden Baden Mathilde Hossenlopp, who was born in Alsace. It was mutual love at first sight. Married against all odds in 1913, the couple moved to Indochina. Mathilde then discovered photography, leaving behind an important collection of glass plates taken between 1915 and 1929. As a form of tribute wished by their grandson Tiane Doan na Champassak, Mathilde's work is now gathered together with a selection of texts written by her husband in 1909 and 1913. The colonial rituals documented in the plates include summer breaks, rice cultivation, Vietnamese high society and those employed in labour bordering on slavery.