The warm, caramel tones of Dima Gavrysh‘s newest pictures, part of a personal project shot at home in New York City, evoke something quite unlike his greater body of work.

They are not pictures of Uganda or Niger or Chernobyl or Afghanistan.

They’re pictures of coffee — good coffee, in Mr. Gavrysh’s estimation — and the coffeehouses in which it’s most appreciated.

Time slows as patrons chat on bar stools, sipping from mugs and chatting with friends. A man, nearly hidden behind a stack of dishes, breathes in, lifting a cup of espresso to his nose. A smiling couple embraces by an open window. Beside them, a fellow in sunglasses seems not to notice their intimacy — lost in thought, perhaps, and his own cup of coffee.

The images are the stuff of everyday life, verging on mundane. But Mr. Gavrysh, 32, pursued the story as he would have any other.

“I’m used to shooting all sorts of situations,” he said. He described Abraço, the smallest coffeehouse of the bunch, in terms of a prison cell. “But the atmosphere? Love is all around.”

Mr. Gavrysh spent two to three days in each shop. He showed up before the doors opened and stayed most of the day, seeking every detail: where the coffee came from; how it was delivered (usually in 50-pound bags); and how it was roasted and ground. He watched as baristas perfected the beverages and customers reveled in them.

His project isn’t meant to be a guide to coffeehouses, but a look behind the scenes at locally owned places where coffee is treated with reverence.

Mr. Gavrysh was born in Ukraine. He didn’t fall in love with coffee until a trip to Paris 10 years ago. The drink has since become something of a passion. So he was begrudging when the project exacted its greatest toll: about two dozen cups into it, he had to switch to decaf.