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.

Two carnival revellers masquerade as Leonardo da Vinci's painting “Mona Lisa” pose in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, Sunday, January 31, 2016. Carnival-goers in Venice are being asked by police to momentarily lift their masks as part of new anti-terrorism measures for the annual festivities. (Photo by Domenico Stinellis/AP Photo)

Bar girls use their mobile phones outside a bar along the Walking Street where bars and sеx scenes are a commonplace July 31, 2016 in Pattaya, Thailand. Thailand's first female minister of tourism would like the sеx trade that is a huge business in the country to be banned. Tourists flock to Thailand for many sights including beautiful beaches but also for sеx tourism. Cities like Bangkok and Pattaya are well known as hubs of the Southeast Asian sеx trade, despite the fact that prostitution has been illegal in Thailand since 1960. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

This picture taken on April 5, 2022 shows a train travelling along a bridge past cherry blossoms in Tokyo's Shinagawa district. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

The Christmas tree is lit at Rockefeller Center in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2022. (Photo by Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

People wearing costumes walk during Halloween in Sierra Madre, California, U.S., October 31, 2017. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

An Indian man feeds peanuts to monkeys along a busy street in Ahmedabad on July 31, 2016. Feeding animals is sacred in Hindu society. (Photo by Sam Panthaky/AFP Photo)

A performer entertains the crowd during a rally in support of the leader of the Cameroonian opposition party Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) in Yaounde, on September 30, 2018, prior to the upcoming October 7, presidential elections. (Photo by Marco Longari/AFP Photo)