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.

Actor Jackie Chan poses with student performers after participating in a leg of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Torch Relay at the Badaling Great Wall on February 3, 2022 outside Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A silicon rug in the form of Adolph Hitler on display during an exhibition by Israeli artist Boaz Arad, at the Center for Contemporary Art February 22, 2007 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Arad is an Israeli artist who is dealing with the Holocaust in a provocative way. He uses the Holocaust to discuss human evil and contemporary Israel, which he says is torn and crumbling. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)

A visitor holds up her toy bunny to the aquarium glass in front of Aurora the Russian polar bear at the Sao Paulo Aquarium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, April 16, 2015. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

A visitor and an employee dressed as Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), the granddaughter of Ded Moroz (Russian equivalent of Santa Claus), pose for a picture inside an upside down house, constructed as an attraction for local residents and tourists and located at the Royev Ruchey Park of Flora and Fauna in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, December 7, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Model Lily Donaldson flashes the peace sign as she leaves Victoria's Secret Fashion Show China casting in New York City on August 22, 2017. (Photo by Christopher Peterson/Splash News and Pictures)

British singer Rita Ora arrives for the Echo Award at Messe Berlin on April 12, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

Jared Leto, holding a model of his own head, attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the “Camp: Notes on Fashion” exhibition on Monday, May 6, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP Photo)