How much of what we imagine about our neighbors actually squares with reality? ... New York-based photographer Gail Albert-Halaban recently spent a year exploring that question in Paris, peering from one building into another to capture intimate moments: a girl practicing her clarinet, a woman with a cat in her lap, a man reading a book.

You may feel like a voyeur looking at these photographs—some of which are currently on view in “Paris Views” at the Kopeikin Gallery in Culver City—but these images are not only staged and shot with a normal focal-length lens, they’re a collaboration among Albert-Halaban and the people on both sides of the view. The people loaning their homes for the shoot described what they saw and imagined to their neighbors across the street—and the neighbors talked about what their lives were actually like. Collectively, both sides came up with a plan for a photo: what time of day it would be taken and what it would depict. In the process, new relationships formed, which was a key part of the project.

“It used to be, we’d go to the corner store or deli and meet our neighbors, but now we live in a world that’s so mediated by computer screens,” says Albert-Halaban. This project is all “about having face-to-face contact with our neighbors, so instead of just watching and judging them, we can become brothers and sisters.”

The Paris photos weren’t her first foray into window photography. She previously spent six years taking similar photographs in New York City, mostly in her Chelsea neighborhood. For this “Out the Window” series, friends and acquaintances would tip her off to a compelling view, and she’d write to the subjects to explain the project and ask to set up a meeting. Most people were interested and willing to participate.