The early commercial success and spread of photography can be attributed to the recognition of photography’s potential to spread information on Cochin China, Tonkin, and Annam by colonial administrators. Thus photographers were often tasked to record early military expeditions. For instance, Émile Gsell (1838 – 1879) was hired to photograph Angkor Wat in the "Commission d'exploration du Mékong". Gsell would later be the first Frenchman to set-up a commercial photography studio in Saigon. Other notable French photography studio owners include Aurélien Pestel (1855–1897) whose photographs were exhibited at the 1894 World Exposition in Lyon and used to announce Indochina’s participation in the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris.