Those that have grown up outside of the US have undoubtedly developed clichéd ideas of life in America. In some films of the eighties and nineties, the iconography is repetitive enough to lead non-Americans into believing that life across the Atlantic is like one long Coca-Cola ad.

Since my childhood, the most captivating scenes have taken place in a New York street in summertime. Films from A Bronx Tale to Do The Right Thing to Kids have provided me with my own vision of New York Summers filled with Baseball games, street parties and of course, the obligatory opening of the water hydrant leading to neighbourhood water fights.

This August I will make my first trip to New York in the summertime, having only ever visited in Autumn, and I’m wondering if my standards have been set too high, ruined by movies of my childhood. Ryan McGinley’s recent portrait’s of M.I.A reassured me that the New York summer I hold in my mind may still be possible.