I found this book among my father's effects. It is a collection of pictures taken in Laos during the early 1970s. The photographer is George Archer. "Faces of Laos" was published by Imprimerie Nationale in Vientiane, Laos, in August, 1973. I found no trace of this book in any library card catalogue or other reference source. So I scanned the book and posted it here, hoping to perhaps make contact with the photographer and with others who lived in Laos during that period.

Some months after posting these pictures I received a type-written letter from the photographer, who was made aware of this web site by his son. George Archer was happy to see his "Faces of Laos" pictures on the web, and some correspondences with he and his wife ensued.

About two years later later I learned that the Center for Hmong Studies in St. Paul, Minnesota, had also found this web site and consequently contacted the photographer. Mr. Archer donated several copies of this book to the Center for Hmong Studies, where a "George Archer Collection" was created.

My father served two tours of duty in Laos, first in the 1950s and again in the 1970s. He would be proud to know of the connections made among his copy of "Faces of Laos," this web site, and the Center for Hmong Studies.

Read my first story about Faces of Laos, and a follow-up story about the creation of a George Archer Center at the Hmong Studies Institute in St. Paul in 2010.