PUBLIC MARKS with tags video & cinemagraph

You know how people sometimes say that jazz is the only truly American art form? Animated GIFs are like the jazz of the internet: they could only exist, and be created and appreciated, online. That said, PopTart Cat is not exactly on par with Thelonious Monk. But photographer Jamie Beck and motion graphics artist Kevin Burg may have finally found a way to elevate the animated GIF to a level approaching fine art, with their "cinemagraphs" -- elegant, subtly animated creations that are "something more than a photo but less than a video." Here's one of my favorites:

New York City-based photographer Jamie Beck, in collaboration with Kevin Burg, a web designer with a background in video and motion graphics, has elevated the art of animated GIFs. In a post yesterday, we showcased some of Beck's collaborations with supermodel Coco Rocha. After the post was published, Beck sent us a detailed message explaining her work process, which we've reproduced in part below. You can view all of Beck and Burg's GIFs on Beck's From Me To You tumblr. They hope to launch a separate portfolio website in the next week or so.

Just when you think GIFs have hit their ceiling of maximum ingenuity, along comes photographer Jamie Beck and motion graphics artist Kevin Burg with their absolutely phenomenal contribution to the evolving art form. My friend Gerard forwarded me John Pavlus’s FastCo Design profile of this duo and I’m still in a state of “Why didn’t I think of that?” disbelief of what these guys have done here. Beck and Burg have termed this style of GIF a “cinemagraph” — sublime little animated gems that enter the realm between photography and video. Each sublime cinemagraph requires hours of manual editing in order to inject life into them, and not one second of this hard work goes unappreciated. I can’t wait to see what these guys do next. To see more of their creations be sure to visit their Tumblr page.

Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg's animated photos turn the medium of choice for 4chan trolls into something approaching high art. You know how people sometimes say that jazz is the only truly American art form? Animated GIFs are like the jazz of the internet: they could only exist, and be created and appreciated, online.

"Some artists work in oils, some in pastels, some in acrylics. Photographer Jamie Beck and motion graphics artist Kevin Burg? Their medium of choice is animated GIFs.

Here at theMET, we're always looking for creative projects that catch our eye. More than anything, we love posting about work that pushes boundaries, showing our audience something that has been changed, flipped or spinned into something magically different. Then, we see it as our job to find out the story behind such projects. What inspired the artist or photographer to start down that path? What do they hope others get out of their work?

Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg have been making quite a splash this year with their "cinemagraph" technique, combining still photography and video to "unfreeze" a photo in time. The results are stunning, and show that there was more potential in the old animated .gif format than had yet been realized.