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.

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)

Local villagers ride a local coal powered steam train on March 27, 2015 at a station in the town of Shixi , Sichuan Province, in Southern China. While China boasts the world's most extensive high-speed rail infrastructure with over 16,000 kilometers of track, the Shixi-Bagou railway is still a primary connection for local villagers between towns and is kept alive by tourist cars carrying passengers for ten times the price. The rail line came into service in the late 1950s and the train was initially used to transport coal from a now-shuttered mine before passenger carriages were added. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

British rock band Bring Me The Horizon performs at the Reading Music Festival, England, Friday, August 27, 2022. (Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP Photo)

Russian Communist party activists and supporters carry portraits of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin (R) and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (L) as they attend a flowers-laying ceremony at the Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square in downtown Moscow on November 7, 2021, marking the 104th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution also known as the October Revolution. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

A hot air balloon in tortoise shape flies in the air during the Tazaungdaing air balloon festival in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar, 25 November 2015. During the festival, hot air balloons made of multicolored papers and hung with paper lanterns, fireworks and fire sticks are exploded in mid-air. (Photo by Hein Htet/EPA)

June 21: “World War Z”. Brad Pitt battles zombie apocalypse in $170 million film by “Quantum of Solace” director Marc Forster. This publicity photo released by Paramount Pictures shows, center, Brad Pitt as Gerald Lane in a scene from the film, “World War Z”, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions in association with Hemisphere Media Capital and GK Films. (Photo by Jaap Buitendijk/AP Photo/Paramount Pictures)

A fashion lovers walks in the courtyard of the Louvre museum during Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear Spring/Summer 2023 fashion collection presented Tuesday, October 4, 2022 in Paris. (Photo by Christophe Ena/AP Photo)