William Coupon: Tribes, Dolls, Faces, Places and Spaces

Dolls

Set 4

I am a man and I collect dolls. Perhaps a strange statement to make, but I'll tell you why. As a photographer, I've traveled the far corners of the globe and made it my life's work to document the world's indigenous tribes - many of which are in danger of even surviving into the next century.

Along the way, I kept being drawn to particular iconography of these people. I always admired how indigenous people symbolize their world by representing it through artwork or artisanship: utensils, drawings, furniture, clothing, dolls...

The dolls I've collected are from around the world, and they suggest, through symbolism, this other world. Some are collected merely because they allude to a style, a personality, a time, a place. Some are new, but most are old -- let's say over thirty years. I collected them because they remided me of the place, and their character so candidly resembled those I had met in the sessions with "real people".

I decided to photograph them, as portraits, on a state-of-the-art 4x5 digital camera and make large state-of-the-art IRIS prints. The prints are even more life-like, yet perhaps a bit more disturbing when they are printed large.

In any case, when I look around my New York City Studio, I realize that the far corners of the world are really only the far corners of this place. Or, is it the other way around?

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