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.

Miss USA Alyssa Campanella arrives at the 2nd Annual American Giving Awards at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on December 7, 2012 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)

A displaced Palestinian boy, who fled from home due to Israeli strikes, gets a haircut at a tent camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 8, 2024. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Hundreds of flamingos take flight in the Rift Valley in East Africa early September 2024. The birds gather in the region’s saline lakes to eat the blue-green algae that grows in abundance. The red-orange pigment in the algae is what gives them their distinctive pink plumage. They also use the site to breed. (Photo by Alexandre and Chloe Bes/Naturagency/Solent News)

Students with faces painted as Hindu goddess Kali, take part in a cultural event ahead of the Janmashtami festival, or the birth anniversary of Hindu Lord Krishna, inside a college in Mumbai, India on September 4, 2023. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

Kashmiri women walk in a garden covered with fallen Chinar leaves on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, November 4, 2020. Kashmiris collect fallen leaves in autumn to make charcoal for use during winters. (Photo by Dar Yasin/AP Photo)

Italy's Emma Severini tries to tackle Portugal's Tatiana Pinto during the Euro 2025, group B, soccer match between Portugal and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, July 7, 2025. (Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/AP Photo)

Ant Burgess practices his freestyle on a jet ski at Blyth beach in Northumberland, on the North East coast on Saturday, April 10, 2021. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)