Grant Winther’s travel photographs capture the unique faces of the world.

After more than 60 years of looking through the lens of film cameras, Grant Winther is embracing his digital Olympus.

He loves the camera’s lightness, and does not miss the fear of losing his best roll of film. However, this purist wouldn’t dream of digitally altering his photos.

“You see what I see – It makes the picture more real,” Winther said. “However the picture turns out, that’s the way I leave it.”

His insistence on keeping his art “real” extends to content as well as his form. Winther captures raw emotion, always finding that people, rather than monuments, are his favorite subjects.

“Even when I was a little kid I took pictures of people – put the camera right in their face,” the retired attorney said, reminiscing about his first camera, a Kodak Brownie.

Pegasus Coffee House is exhibiting a series of Winther’s photographs taken during a recent trip to India with his wife, Barbara. But don’t expect to find an image of the Taj Mahal in the mix; Grant stayed true to his preference for human expression.

He recalled one instance when he and Barbara were appreciating the view of an impressive palace on a lake. He turned to his side and saw a man standing nearby, with a poignant expression that seized the photographer’s interest.

Winther snapped a picture. The resulting image turned out to be his favorite, one of 26 portraits of beautiful women, gypsy children and holy men that comprise the “Faces of India” display.

The photographs portray a wide range of emotions, some easily readable, others elusive.

In one, a woman dressed in a vibrant blue sari coyly conceals the lower half of her face behind the flowing cloth, while her smiling eyes betray a hidden smirk.

Another depicts a young gypsy girl sitting by a fire, her stoic gaze partially clouded by an ethereal ribbon of smoke.

In the aptly named “Suspicious,” a boy glances off to his side, head tilted and eyebrows raised at an unknown object. The boy’s expression must have been fleeting, but Winther caught it at a natural, ripe moment.

Sometimes he would ask permission of his model before he snapped the shot. At other times, he observed someone else with a camera, and took pictures of that person’s subject from his own unique perspective – a technique Winther has repeatedly employed in pursuit of a great image.

“They’re posing for someone else, but I steal the picture,” he said.

While he has never been shy about getting his shot, Winther has been less confident about sharing his art with the community.

He usually takes photos while he and his wife travel, to document their journeys for friends and create lasting memories for their own reflection.

In 43 years of marriage, the Winthers have visited every continent except Antarctica. Their adventures range from crossing the Sahara by camel with Tuareg nomads to trekking in Tibet, with Grant taking photos along every route.

Upon their return from India, they decided that it was time for Grant to exhibit his art for public viewing.

Barbara, an accomplished travel journalist and author of articles on Native American art, said in the past, her husband’s photographs had always accompanied her published writings. He had shown his photography in several museums when they lived in California, but never on Bainbridge Island.

Former Pegasus owner Hazel Van Evera agreed to host the exhibit on the walls of the coffee shop.

“I charged down here because he was shy about his work and he had these great photographs,” Barbara said. “I said, ‘My God, Grant, you’ve got to put these out!’”

The community’s warm reception of his work has encouraged Grant to begin assembling his next series, a showcase of photos from the Winthers’ travels through Vietnam.

He and Barbara are already lining up their next destinations – the Galapagos, Costa Rica and Botswana, each of which should inspire Winther with new sights, textures, colors – and of course, faces.

“Every place we travel to has something quite distinctive about it,” Grant said.

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Winther’s world

Grant Winther’s “Faces of India” is on display at Pegasus Coffee House until Oct. 30. Pegasus is open Monday to Wednesday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday to Sunday 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Call 206-842-6725 or go to pegasuscoffeehouse.org for information.