Henri Parmentier was the first person to establish a collection specific to Laos, during the research he conducted in 1911 and 1927 on the Lao and Phuan religious buildings on the banks of the Mekong River between Khong and Luang Prabang, and on the Xieng Khuang plateau (architect's photographs concerned with technical surveys and formal analyses). Charles Batteur was recruited by the EFEO in 1919 as an inspector in the archaeological department and was entrusted with the restoration of Wat Sisaket in Vientiane in 1922-1923. His photographs provide us with a unique testimony to the gentleness and simplicity of life in Luang Prabang in the early 20th century. The research of Charles Robequain, Suzanne Karpelès, Madeleine Colani and Paul Lévy, or the restorations of Louis Fombertaux follow. The photographic documentation preserved at that time was essentially about prehistoric material or technical building details.

In 1950 the premature death of Henri Deydier did not allow him to carry out the ambitious research program he had set for himself. From the point of view of iconography, it is undoubtedly Charles Archaimbault, who left the most important documentation illustrating very precisely the rituals of Southern Laos.

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