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.

“Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn't resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union”. – Yahoo News. Photo: Hungary, MAV 424 Steam Train. (Photo by Rebecca Bathory)

Measuring just five feet at its widest point, the ultra-thin home was unveiled in the Polish capital of Warsaw on Sunday, October 21, 2012. Photo: The Keret House is squeezed into the space between two apartment buildings in Warsaw. There's a four-inch gap between the apartment buildings to either side. A perforated steel facade was used to allow in more light. (Photo by Andrea Meichsner/The New York Times)

A man carries schoolchildren on his bicycle on a road in Srinagar, March 28, 2017. (Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

Devil Ark manager Dean Reid reacts as Tasmanian Devil joeys climb on him before the first shipment of healthy and genetically diverse devils to the island state of Tasmania leave the Devil Ark sanctuary in Barrington Tops on Australia's mainland, November 17, 2015. The largest group so far of disease-free Tasmanian devils has been released in the wild, as part of plans to save the carnivorous marsupials from a cancer threatening them with extinction. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

Iranian Kurdish female members of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan (PAK) hold a position on November 6, 2016 in an area near the town of Bashiqa, some 25 kilometres north east of Mosul, during an operation against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists to retake the main hub city. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)

A participant, called a musher, races in the 33rd Aviemore Sled Dog Rally in Aviemore, Scotland January 23, 2016. The Siberian Husky Club of Britain is holding its annual sled dog rally over the weekend. (Photo by Russell Cheyne/Reuters)

The granddaughter of one of the family members cries after the eviction from their home in El Raval neighbourhood, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Barcelona, Spain, May 12, 2021. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)