NO sooner has one exhibition by York photographer Ray Price ended at Spring Espresso than another will open only a fortnight later at the Fossgate coffee bar.

His first show, YO1 & Beyond, focused on the humorous, the bizarre and even the disturbing in and around York city centre; the second takes Ray and his camera overseas for Rugged Faces, a series of 21 Indian faces in their day-to-day surroundings in black and white.

"I've travelled extensively in India over a number of years and more than anything it's always been the people that fascinate me most about the country," he says. "I seek them out away from the tourists and off the beaten track: in markets and bazaars, railway stations and the back streets, often walking each day for hours in the process.

"Usually we chat briefly and often share chai, the sweet tea drunk throughout India. I find that they're inevitably friendly and curious about me and my being there as I am about them and their lives."

His Indian encounters bring out a different style of photography in Ray's travel portraits. "In England, photography is too often seen as an intrusion and I have to stand back and work as unnoticed as possible, but in India I'm invited to be inclusive, to be part of the moment, which makes the photograph," he says. "But it's always their faces that attract me first and fascinate me most.

"They seem to have their whole life etched into every smile, frown or crease and expression and through their faces they are sharing that with me. Even the children seem to carry their personality with them in their faces and eyes and a sense of wisdom far beyond their years."

Fortunately, he says, Indian people are usually more than willing to have their photograph taken. "And that's probably more so than any other nation of people that I've met," he adds. "Sometimes I'm asked to send them their picture and, where possible, I try to do this by sending prints by post. Email would be easier but all too often they don’t have access to this or a printer.

"So when I returned to Goa recently, I took with me a number of prints of people that I'd photographed the previous year. I sought many of them out and gave them their own picture. For me it was very gratifying to see the pleasure in their faces when I did this. Needless to say, I now have pictures of people with their own picture and they have something that they otherwise might never have had."

Analysing our fascination with the human face in photographs, Ray says: "Usually it's the face that arouses our curiosity in the person, inspiring us to want to know more about them, albeit that a photograph means we can’t; we have to imagine who they are and every thing about them.

" And I want my pictures to do that, to promote thought about the person, rather than to just focus on the face, and look beyond the surface. After all, we see hundreds of faces every day in our lives without giving them a moment's though and my Rugged Faces show is a chance to do otherwise."

Rugged Faces, An Exhibition of Travel Portraits by Ray Price, runs at Spring Espresso, Fossgate, York, from Tuesday to June 29, open weekdays, 8am to 7pm; 9am to 5pm. A private view with drinks and nibbles will be held on Monday from 7pm to 8.30pm.