[Photos] Striking Black-and-White Images of Hue's Imperial City in 1896

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March 31, 2019

Just two weeks ago, we published some monochrome photos of Hue taken earlier this year. Yet in this series, we can browse another black-and-white selection of images from the city, this time from around 1986.

Few photographic records exist of Vietnam – or anywhere, for that matter – before the 20th century. Still, Flickr user and master of vintage Vietnamese photos manhhai managed to dig up a series of 13 photos of Hue taken by a French military cartographer living in Indochina at the time.

Dated from 1896 to 1900, these black-and-white images capture the striking, turn-of-the-20th-century imperial capital during an era when the lines between French colonialism and imperial rule were blurred.

From the interior of Thai Hoa Palace to the grounds of Emperor Tu Duc's final resting place, Vietnamese royal guards share the same space as French colonists. Elephants roam the Imperial Citadel and, throughout the entire series of photographs, the same iconic structures that draw thousands of tourists to Hue today serve as the backdrop for this bygone era.