“It was early in 1991 that I decided to go the Darien Jungle in Panama to photograph the Choco Indians. They are the more remotely situated indigenous group there and,0b to this day, the most remote tribe I have visited. I had resisted photographing the Cuna, or Kuna, Indians, who are ferociously independent and who number upwards of 50,000. They reside in the many islands forming the San Blas, the capital being El Porvenir. The culture is predominantly matriarchal - the men join the wife’s family after marriage. The women are known for manufacturing and designing the “molas”, the layered cotton embroidered dress of distinct patterns. The Cuna are a popular group to photograph and are the destinations of many tourist groups vacationing in those island’s turquoise waters. So I set out to meet the Cuna people and stay with them for one week. I would do a series of portraits of them there. In doing that project, I photographed a darling little girl with her pet parrot, who adorned the top of her head. The little girl, all of 5 years old, was very shy and nervous in front of the camera, but the bird had no such trouble adjusting to the light and portable photo studio.”
William Coupon has worked extensively in commercial photography and film, for over 35 years. He’s photographed 20 Time Magazine covers – including portraits of all the Presidents since Richard Nixon.
Coupon became interested in formal studio portraits in 1979 while observing it’s lower Manhattan youth and its present counter-culture, and decided early on to use a single-light source and simple mottled backdrop, and when needed, would set this up as a portable studio, one highly mobile. This was then used to document global sub-cultures. Many of the projects – referred to as "Social Studies" – became documents of indigenous people. These include projects on Haiti, Australian Aboriginals, Native Americans, Scandinavian Laplanders, Israeli Druzim, Moroccan Berbers, Alaskan Yupik, Spanish Gypsies, Turkish Kurds, Central African Pygmy, and Panamanian Cuna and Chocoe. Stylistically, they were always photographed formally on the backdrop, and contextually, or environmentally, with 2 1/4 Rolleiflex black and white images, which were meant to be companions to the studio portraits.
William Coupon has worked extensively in commercial photography and film, for over 35 years. He’s photographed 20 Time Magazine covers – including portraits of all the Presidents since Richard Nixon.
Coupon became interested in formal studio portraits in 1979 while observing it’s lower Manhattan youth and its present counter-culture, and decided early on to use a single-light source and simple mottled backdrop, and when needed, would set this up as a portable studio, one highly mobile. This was then used to document global sub-cultures. Many of the projects – referred to as "Social Studies" – became documents of indigenous people. These include projects on Haiti, Australian Aboriginals, Native Americans, Scandinavian Laplanders, Israeli Druzim, Moroccan Berbers, Alaskan Yupik, Spanish Gypsies, Turkish Kurds, Central African Pygmy, and Panamanian Cuna and Chocoe. Stylistically, they were always photographed formally on the backdrop, and contextually, or environmentally, with 2 1/4 Rolleiflex black and white images, which were meant to be companions to the studio portraits.