French photographer and director Romain Laurent started making portrait-based GIFs as a way to produce work outside his commercial jobs, a spontaneous project that would encourage him to produce consistently for himself rather than clients.

Residents make decorations mosque-shaped lamps to enliven the holy month of Ramadan in Pekanbaru, Riau Province on April 28, 2022. Muslims throughout the world are marking the month of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, during which devotees fast from dawn till dusk. (Photo by Afrianto Silalahi/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Quinn O'Hogan (L) and Kendall O'Hogan lean into the winds from Hurricane Helene as it passes offshore on September 26, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Helene is forecast to become a major hurricane, bringing the potential for deadly storm surges, flooding rain, and destructive hurricane-force winds along parts of the Florida West Coast. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

In this Tuesday, December 20, 2016 photo, Mohammad Ramzan, right, reacts while talking to The Associated Press with his young bride Saima in Jampur, Pakistan. Saima was given as a bride to the older man by her father so he could marry the groom’s sister, a practice of exchanging girls that is entrenched in conservative regions of Pakistan. It even has its own name in Urdu: Watta Satta, “give and take”. A mix of interests – family obligations, desire for sons, a wish to hand off a girl to a husband – can lead to a young teen in an a marriage she never sought. (Photo by K.M. Chaudhry/AP Photo)

Girls talk outside the Niavaran Palace in northern Tehran, capital of Iran, March 26, 2024. People visited the Niavaran Palace during the new year vacation of Nowruz, which falls on March 20 this year. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

People wade through a flooded path near Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers after the water level of river Ganges and river Yamuna rose, in Allahabad on October 14, 2022. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

Commuters make their way through a flooded street after a heavy rain shower in Lahore on July 14, 2022. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

In this Wednesday, June 8, 2016 photo, Joe Giles, an actor portraying a zombie in “The Walking Dead”, poses with social media reporter Danielle Datu during a walker boot camp at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)