Coyote

Through its storied persona, ideas of Canis latrans are imprinted upon the human cultural imagination. The constructed image of the coyote embodies associations of wildness and mythical status. This photographic series highlights how the coyote’s popular image is mapped upon the landscape, informing perceptions of this animal and allowing for a distanced engagement with it. Through the image of the coyote, the wild, mischievous conveyor of ominous fortune satisfies artificial expectation. Imagining the coyote in mediated form may allow it to seem near to us, present even. Through its artificial image, the concept of coyote is further allowed a presence, one that is both beyond and before the inscription of our human conceptions. Created projections activate the essence of coyote. In shadow and as symbol, the animal steps into and away from our human gaze, continuing its becoming through our exchange with its image. Though highly controlled in contemporary culture, the image of the coyote thus invites recognition of its actual being. Its image presents the opportunity for the animal to continue to exist through its projection. Though not physically available in its abstraction, the coyote briefly presents itself beyond its simulated limits, proposing something that on the surface is hidden. Through its conception within the image, the essence of Canis latrans persists.