From the Publisher

In a sense, William Coupon is two different photographers. The first works in the world of mainstream commercial photography, shooting everything from advertising campaigns for clients such as Nike and Dewar's Scotch to magazine covers, including portraits of Robert Bork, Pat Robertson and Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush for TIME. The other William Coupon is endlessly fascinated with ethnic groups whose cultures are as far from the mainstream as they can be. He has traveled to record dramatic images of Norwegian Lapps, , Australian Aborigines, Tarahumara Indians in Mexico and members of a dozen other groups.

With a resume like that, he was a natural choice to take the photographs for this week's cover story on vanishing cultures, which was conceived, reported and written by senior writer Eugene Linden. Says deputy art director Arthur Hochstein: "We knew right away that this was a perfect assignment for William." It was also a logistical nightmare. In a little more than six weeks, Coupon and an assistant had to travel to Alaska, Mexico, Borneo, Papua New Guinea and the Central African Republic, lugging camera equipment and a studio backdrop into various rain forests and wildernesses. In each place William had to locate his subjects, win their trust and take their pictures, all on a tight time schedule. Along the way he was robbed in New Guinea, and his assistant came down with a bad case of malaria. But the experience was worth it. Says Coupon: "It was the most amazing trip I've ever been on. I really feel as though I'm being a witness to these people and to the danger they're in."

William began his love affair with ethnic subgroups 10 years ago, when despite a total lack of training in photography, he picked up a camera and plunged in, beginning what he calls his Social Studies series with Turkey's Kurds. He quickly developed a characteristic technique, which he has used with everyone from Native Americans to American Presidents: he takes subjects out of their surroundings and photographs them against a canvas backdrop. Hochstein thinks there is a happy paradox here: "The sameness of the background emphasizes the personalities of the people." That is clear in the pictures for this week's cover story; no one who sees them will easily forget Coupon's subjects, even if their cultures vanish forever.