Medium: Gelatin Silver Print
Image Dimensions: 9 5/8 x 7 1/2 in (24.5 x 19 cm)
Framed Dimensions: 14 3/8 x 12 1/2 in (36.5 x 31.7 cm)
Signature and Inscription: Titled and dated "Coyotes, 1945" and signed and dated "Frederick Sommer 1945" on the verso

Description:
Dating from 1945, Coyotes belongs to one of the most distinctive themes within Frederick Sommer's photographic practice, in which mortality, natural transformation, and formal abstraction converge. Here, Sommer directs his camera toward the skeletal remains of a coyote, transforming an uncompromising encounter with death into an intricately structured photographic composition.

The sweeping ribs establish the principal visual rhythm, while the skull, spine, and limbs extend dynamically through the surrounding terrain. Their pale surfaces emerge dramatically against the dense, dark ground, creating a powerful interplay of line, texture, and tonal contrast. Through the gelatin silver medium, Sommer renders bone, earth, and vegetation with remarkable intensity, allowing the image to move simultaneously between direct observation and Surrealist abstraction.

For Sommer, such subjects offered more than an exploration of mortality. Organic remains became complex arrangements of structure and material through which photography could examine transformation, time, and the underlying order of nature. The present image demonstrates this vision with exceptional immediacy.

Titled and dated "Coyotes, 1945" and signed and dated "Frederick Sommer 1945" on the verso, the photograph combines a highly characteristic subject with substantial authorial inscriptions, giving it strong visual presence and notable appeal for collectors of twentieth-century American and experimental photography.