In this live photo video essay on human behavior Paulien Oltheten discusses the findings she made in the Parisian business district La Défense. An anonymous place of transit where she weaves personal relationships with some of the passersby she chooses and follows. She manages to create unimaginable encounters between a science book and a roll of paper or a family album and a former schoolteacher's suitcase.

We discover why she's interested in those particular events and how she works like a detective as she attempts to connect disparate information. We learn to see the way she sees. Now, observing her with new eyes, we place her every gesture under the microscope—watching the watcher.

Performed at o.a: Jeu de Paume, Paris (FR) 2017; De Brakkegrond, Amsterdam (NL) 2017; Pac Milan (IT), 2018; Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam (NL), 2018; Fries Museum, Leeuwarden 2020 (NL)

In 2018 I transformed it into a video installation > here