A photo titled Best Friends by popular French photographer Rehahn was sold at a record price of 10,000 euros to a private collector at an exhibition in Brittany (France) in late October.
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The photo “Best Friends” featuring six-year-old M’Nong ethnic minority girl, Kim Luan, and an old elephant as her friend by popular French photographer Rehahn |
“Best Friends” features six-year-old M’Nong ethnic minority girl Kim Luan praying in front of an old elephant as her friend. M’Nong people consider elephants as members of their family. In the photo, Kim Luan wears a traditional dress which is hard to find on October 3.
The solo exhibition of Rehahn who has had nearly 60,000 photos about Viet Nam was organized by the Eleven Art Gallery with the attendance of 200 guests. The event featured 20 photos of Vietnam in big sizes of 60x90cm and 1x1.5m priced from 950 euros to 10,000 euros. The “Best Friends” photo, also the biggest at the exhibition, is among three limited copies in the world. François Salmon, the owner of the gallery, said it is his most expensive photograph sold since he has started to work in photography industry for the past 20 years.
Rehahn told the Daily that he would spend part of the money on a project to improve the lives of Kim Luan and her family in the Central Highlands city of Buon Ma Thuot.
In the same month, Rehahn also attended a travel festival with 4,000 visitors as well as an introduction at a school with 100 students to promote Viet Nam.
The photographer said his upcoming plans are to publish the second photo book, also a sequel of the first book “Viet Nam - Mosaic of contrast” this month. He will also display 40 photos and costumes of the ethnic minority people in Viet Nam at a festival in 2016 in Normandy which has annually welcomed 200,000 visitors. In March 2016, Rehahn will have five exhibitions in Argentina and South America to introduce Viet Nam.