Her gaze is direct, incurious but not hostile. It's the signature expression that immediately identifies this portrait of an Afghan schoolgirl as the work of American photographer Steve McCurry. How does he persuade his subjects to look so steadily into his lens? "I find humor a great way to break the ice and connect," he says. "Once you start to talk to people you find they're not that much different."

A sense of the common humanity that links different cultures infuses "Face of Asia," an exhibition of his pictures from Afghanistan, Cambodia, India and Tibet, the first show at Asia House's new London HQ. When he photographed a bent-backed Indian woman (Brindavan, 1995), she invited him home for tea and told him how she'd lived her whole life on charity, praying for others. Wading through

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nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu) floods in India put him on a level with a smiling man holding a precious sewing machine out of the water (Porbandar, 1983). The photos are on display until Jan. 31 at the cultural and business center, which opened earlier this month in London's fashionable Marylebone district.

The space will show traditional and contemporary Asian arts in its gallery, and host lectures (past subjects have included Sichuan cookery and Persian mysticism) and concerts by top Asian musicians. It also features a pan-Asian café and a business unit to foster trade links between Britain and the East. Asia House will certainly be a great place to spot similarities and enjoy differences. tel: (44-20) 7307 5454; www.asiahouse.org

• LUCY FISHER
• Face to face with humanity through the lens of Steve McCurry