The Permanent Archaeological Mission of Indochina based in Saigon, founded in December 1898, was renamed Ecole francaised d’Extreme-Orient on 20 January 1900. Its headquarters were transferred in 1902 to Hanoi, which had become the capital of Indochina. The first researches (archeologists, architects, epigramphists...) promptly felt the need to supplement notes and sketches with photographs. From the beginning of the 20th century, these exceptional images constituted a formidable working tool. Nowadays, they gathered in the photo libraries of Paris and Pondicherry, and are put forward here as the testimony of an era.