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.

A woman, with her face covered with colored powders, dances during the Holi Festival of Colors in Lisbon, Sunday, September 15 2013. The festival, which is mainly celebrated during the Hindu spring festival Holi in some regions of India and Nepal, has become popular among people in other communities. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

“Seagulls by Snuff Puppets causing mischief” stand alongside members of “Smashed: The Nightcap cabaret show” during the opening day press call for Sydney Festival 2024 on January 05, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage)

Director Taro Kambe directs as he watches acting with VR headset during a rehearsal for ROCKET's 3D virtual reality adult film at the company's studio in Tokyo, Japan, July 31, 2017. Japan is the world's second biggest virtual reality market after the United States and the adult entertainment industry and gaming sector are turning to VR as a new way to distribute content. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Members of the “Exit Point” amateur rope-jumping group jump from a 44-metre high (144-ft) waterpipe bridge in the Siberian Taiga area outside Krasnoyarsk, September 13, 2015. Rope-jumping, an extreme sport, involves jumping from a high point using an advanced leverage system combining mountaineering and rope safety equipment. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A demonstrator argues with policewomen after she turned up her shirt and was taken out from a protest to demand the resignation of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, on March 13, 2016 in Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo. Protesters, many draped in the Brazilian national flag, poured into the streets of Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at the start of mass demonstrations seeking to bring down President Dilma Rousseff. Authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city and an opposition stronghold, said they were bracing for a million protesters. (Photo by Miguel Schincariol/AFP Photo)

In this September 16, 1983 file photo, actor and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger shows off his new U.S. citizenship papers as Maria Shriver, daughter of Sargent and Eunice Shriver, looks on at the Shrine Auditorium in Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Wally Fong/AP Photo)

Indian actress Freida Pinto attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 09, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/VF20/WireImage)