As recently as 1995 more than 250 truyền thần portrait artists were still active in the capital, but since that time, as more people have been able to afford cameras and digital photography has become widespread, the art form has waned in popularity. Today there are believed to be less than 30 truyền thần portrait artists, operating mostly in the Old Quarter.

There follows a short selection of the most famous truyền thần portrait artist shops in Hà Nội. Of these the most celebrated truyền thần portrait artist is Nguyễn Bảo Nguyên, who originally entered the profession at 25 and is still going strong today at the age of nearly 70. He has had exhibitions overseas in Japan, the USA, the UK and Germany.