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.

Russian riot policemen beat young PREGNANT female anti-Putin activist during a protest rally against the Presidential inauguration of Vladimir Putin on May 6, 2012 in Moscow, Russia.

A freediver uses weights, yoga and camera tricks to create the illusion of walking underwater for a film which took three years to shoot and was completed in 2013 in El Hierro, Canary Islands. Like a scene from a Hollywood science-fiction movie, this trick footage shows a man apparently walking on water. The underwater film was shot by biologist Armiche Ramos and brothers Armando and Francisco del Rosario, who used their expertise in freediving to create the illusion. No computer graphics were involved in the production, with the team relying solely on their own skills – and a few hidden secrets. (Photo by Ocean Brothers/Barcroft Media/ABACAPress)

For more than a century, the Barcelona skyline has been graced (or marred, depending on who’s talking) by the spectacle of the Basilica designed by Anton Gaudi, first started in 1882. If you want to know what it’ll look like when finished, don’t fret — 2026 is right around the corner. Or you can watch this video, released last week on YouTube by Basílica de la Sagrada Família and titled simply “2026 We Build Tomorrow,” a 3-D artists’ rendering of the building stages through completion.
(If 144 years sounds like a long time to finish a cathedral, keep in mind that there were decades that they didn’t work on it — and that Notre Dame de Paris took 182 years, although the 13th century Parisians didn’t have diesel-powered industrial cranes.) Now, if only the video could show us what the admission and hours will be in 2026 (and how to avoid the inevitable long lines).

An Indian Army soldier marches next to a tableau during the Republic Day parade in New Delhi, India, January 26, 2016. India celebrated its Republic Day Tuesday, highlighted by a march by different branches of the military as well as a display of arms and missiles. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

A handful of villages in the U.K. share the same name as cities or countries from around the world, and they’re spending life in the shadows of their more famous namesakes. Photo: A road sign points the way on August 6, 2013 in Toronto, England. Originally called Newton Cap in the county of Durham, built for workers at the nearby colliery, owner Henry Stobart re-named the village Toronto after visiting Canada. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

These images show off some of the world's most majestic creatures silhouetted against the beautiful rising and setting sun. The vibrant pictures feature a variety of animals in the wild and were taken by a host of photographers at locations around the world. The striking images all have one thing in common: the photographers' awe-inspiring ability to perfectly capture the silhouettes of earth's beautiful creatures. Here: a blue wildebeest moves through grassland at dawn with the sun in the background in Mara Naboisho Conservancy, Kenya, Africa. (Photo by Renato Granieri/Caters News/Ardea)