Photography: Monica Lek actually gets to know her neighbours, and photographs them too!

I, for one, don’t have very exciting neighbours. They don’t really have parties. They’ve never knocked on the front door for a pound of sugar dressed surreptitiously in a trench coat and little else. When I was younger, Pat at number 12 had the nicest Yorkshire Terrier called Wellington, but he was pretty much as animated as it got down our street.

The same cannot be said for Monica Lek (fortunately, or this might have become a particularly dull article). The Barcelona-born artist has been living in New York for a fair while – long enough, at least, to document every one of the passers-by who has captured her eye, which, as you can imagine in New York City, is a fair few. From flower-laden ladies hanging out in lovely gardens to well-dressed gentlemen and colourful greengrocers, Monica’s lens lets no stranger go unsnapped, and we couldn’t be more glad of it.