The last Emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, ruled between 1926 and 1945. Coaxed back to the throne as a French puppet, Bao Dai devoted his time to hunting tigers and women and lived with his queen and concubines in a luxurious summer palace in Dalat. This palace remains as he left it, and among its relics is an faded map of Vietnam made from golden silk, which he received as a gift from France. It is framed under glass in the palace dining room, and I photographed it as an abstract symbol of Bao Dai’s rule. I leave as much to the imagination as I show. A shadowy figure roams through the reflected background – perhaps the ghost of an emperor, a prince or a queen. Incongruously, the most prominent detail shows people at hard labor.