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.

Iranian Arabs who are members of the paramilitary Basij force march in a military parade marking the 35th anniversary of Iraq's 1980 invasion of Iran, in front of the shrine of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, September 22, 2015. (Photo by Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

A truck remains mired in mud and debris on State Route 58 near Tehachapi, California, about 60 miles (97 km) outside of Los Angeles October 17, 2015. A mudslide on Thursday left nearly 200 vehicles, including 75 semi-trailer trucks, stuck in up to five feet of mud, local sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt said. (Photo by David McNew/Reuters)

It is already one of the world’s most iconic cities, but this incredible collection shows how much Paris has changed over the course of the past century. The collection, by French photographer Julien Knez, shows Paris in the 1940s against a backdrop of how the same places look today. Knez says he put the striking collection together to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the city’s liberation from Nazi control in August 1944. Here: Soldiers outside the Hotel De Ville in the 1940s. (Photo by Julien Knez/Caters News)

Athletes attend training session at the Ak Bulak Nordic Arena outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, July 16, 2015. Kazakhstan is aspiring to host the 2022 Winter Olympics but many in the Central Asian nation view the bid as yet another vanity project of long-ruling President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Almaty, the financial capital, will go head-to-head with the Chinese metropolis Beijing on Friday when the International Olympic Committee elects the winner at its session in Malaysia. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

The mother (2nd R) of missing firefighter Xue Ning is helped by other family members as she cries outside the venue of a news conference after trying to demand for more information from government officials, following the explosions on Wednesday night at Binhai new district in Tianjin, China, August 15, 2015. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

People immerse themselves in an ice hole in the Chulym river, with the air temperature at about minus 12 degrees Celsius (10.4 degrees Fahrenheit), during celebrations for the Russian Orthodox Epiphany outside of the town of Nazarovo, Krasnoyarsk region January 19, 2015. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)