However, more recently, the photo essay has been understood as permeated with both the conscious and unconscious desires of the photographer, influenced by class, ethnicity and other factors. In the 20th century, photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Sebastiao Salgado, for example, which forcefully demonstrate documentary photography’s aesthetic and socially activist capacities, have been analyzed as shaped by often undisclosed aspects of the photographers’ cultural, ethnic and historical positions.

These contexts and issues within the history of photography are relevant in understanding Coyne’s Sicilian Journey for several reasons.

Firstly, her series continues the tradition of photographing other cultures from an ambiguous position where the photographer is both an outsider and an insider. An earlier example of this complex and sometimes problematic endeavor is Greek-American Constantine Manos’ three--year exploration of Greece in the 1960s.

In Coyne’s situation, she herself is not Sicilian and yet has connections as the descendent of Sicilian-American immigrants. Furthermore, Coyne’s intimate approach, evident in many of her close-framed compositions that tend to focus in on her subjects, also demonstrates an assumption that intimacy and knowledge is possible through photography.

Indeed, Coyne shares this widespread belief, with its humanistic bent, with such important photographers as W.Eugene Smith, who she certainly admires. This tradition of humanitarian photography of which Coyne’s work is a part has played a powerful role in reportage and continues to inform many contemporary photographers, even though it has been questioned and criticized by other practitioners.