L’Empereur (The Emperor) from 1982 is a small, early body of work by the artist and a rare instance in which he turns the camera on himself. Taken during a stay in Paris, each of the photographs depict the artist in the corner of a room with an arrangement of two chairs and a lamp. He’s taken off his shoes and can be seen either acrobatically balancing on the chairs or slumped across or under them. While the serial format recalls minimalist photography of the 1960s and 1970s, the deadpan compositions add a sense of humor typically lacking from these earlier works.
