Coyotes

Frederick Sommer produced works in various media throughout his career including painting, drawing, poetry, and prose. However, he is most well known for his work as a photographer. This unnerving photograph depicts a group of slaughtered animals discarded on the desert floor. Its unlikely combination of forms, so removed from ordinary experience, owes much to Surrealism. Closely framed and looking down at the animals from an oblique angle, it is at once intimate and grotesque. Fluffy tails and cuffs of fur appear as macabre decorations on the desiccated bodies. The photograph speaks of brutality, exploitation, and the violent capacities of humans. It may be interpreted as a commentary on the end of the Second World War, or more generally as a meditation on death.