The photo “Hidden smile” by French Photographer Réhahn.
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This is one of the monthly activities of the company’s Fun Photography, which provides quality and meaningful works of art for young people with passion for photography, as well as promotes the values of Vietnamese people and culture.
All the photos will be sold throughout the exhibition to raise money for charity work supporting disadvantaged ethnic people living in Vietnam. Photographer Réhahn has travelled to more than 35 countries around the world and decided to live in the central province of Quang Nam’s Hoi An city.
Last year, he was voted one of the top 20 photographers worldwide on the website International Photography. He is one of the most featured photographers of the last four years, having amassed a serious following.
Visiting 49 of the 54 nationalities throughout the country, he has spent his time building strong relationships with the people. He witnessed first hand the complex diversity and fragility of some ethnic groups’ cultural heritage. He built up the Precious Heritage Collection by capturing images of the contrasting cultures, and collecting traditional costumes and precious artifacts. Established in 2014, Fun Photography is an organisation of photography and art for the community.
On 2018 January 2, an Vietnamese - Australian man purchased the photo “Hidden smile” by French Photographer Réhahn at US$30.000. Réhahn photo “Hidden smile” featuring 70-year-old boat rower Bui Thi Xong of Hoi An has been published on a number of US newspapers and magazines including the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Mail, and National Geographic, and was voted the world’s most beautiful photo of a woman. The artwork impresses viewers with the positive toothless smile in the old woman’s wrinkled face.
Once the photo is showcased to the world, old lady Xong has become popular. She has followed Réhahn to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city to attend many exhibition as well as activities to promote Vietnamese culture.
Réhahn, born on 4 May 1979 in Bayeux in Normandy, France, is a photographer based in Hoi An, Vietnam. He travelled over 35 countries and is particularly renowned for his portraits of Vietnam, Cuba and India. Known as the photographer that “captures emotions and people souls”, he has been working towards the recognition of the heritage of Vietnam’s 54 tribes since 2011.
In 2007, while travelling in Vietnam for the first time with a French NGO, he explored the country and its culture through his lens and captured more than 50.000 photographs. In 2011, he decided to move to Vietnam and settled in the UNESCO listed town of Hoi An. January 2014, he published “Vietnam, Mosaic of contrasts” a collection of 150 photographs depicting the diversity of the country. Best-seller in Vietnam, the book is sold in 29 countries. On 1 January 2017, he opened the Precious Heritage Art Gallery Museum that showcases these ethnic groups whose traditions and heritage are dwindling.
