Vice Style

Anyone who spends any time on the web will have noticed gifs are everywhere right now, we wanted in and got together with Josh Greet for a shoot and he even answered our questions.

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Eastie shirt and shorts, Stüssy hat, Gourmet shoes, Casio watch, Primark socks

VICE: So, Josh, tell me a bit about this gif shoot. I mean, why gif and not just regular photos?
Josh Greet: Well, I feel the gif file is underrated, photographically. Everyone thinks everything should be high-res. Gifs seem to be used for everything but serious photos. The 3D thing works great with them as you don't need glasses, etc, and there's something about the fast-paced swinging backwards that makes people stare at their screens for longer.

For sure, it's almost hypnotic. So GIFs are enjoying a renaissance somewhat with the emergence of tumlbr. Why, in this day and age of high-res videos, etc., do you think they have found popularity again? It's not like people are ditching their iPhones to play Snake on their old Nokia 3210s.
They were originally made because of slow internet connections, so you couldn't watch any videos or look at high-res photos. But, from a technology point of view, there's no need for them anymore, no.

Stüssy jacket, Asger Juel Larsen pants, Vans shoes, American Apparel hat; vintage Radio Days swimsuit, vintage fur coat; Nike jacket, American Apparel pants, adidas shoes, Primark socks

So how did you get into the art of gif-making?
Well, I originally got into it because of the Nishika N8000 camera, really. I found it while trawling through eBay and thought it looked strange as it has four lenses. I found a small Flickr group where people were stitching them together into gifs and that pretty much made me buy the camera straightaway. I didn't think the people the gifs in the group were making were that great but I saw the potential to do some more interesting things. I used the camera for a year making gifs and not really thinking about it, but I'm taking it a lot more seriously lately.

So everything you shoot turns to gif?
Yeah, it's not that easy. It takes 35mm film and produces four images on that film which I scan and digitally overlay. It's taken a while to master, but I can turn them around pretty quick now.

Cassette Playa Jacket, Element shirt, Kush Skateboards t-shirt, Cottweiler track pants, Nasir Mazhar hat

Why do you think it works well for fashion, then?
I think using gifs in fashion is great seeing as there's a lot of fashion across the web and it's not really taking advantage that we are viewing it on computers.

So you think it brings the shoots to life?
Yeah, definitely—it gives it depth. For example, if you're scrolling through a fashion blog with loads of stills these moving pictures are really going to stand out.

Cassette Playa jacket, vintage dress, Etnies beanie, American Apparel tights

Do you think that gifs have been resurrected thanks to a new crop of kids who never maybe saw them first time out and are rejecting the advances in technology in favor of something that basically looks nice?
Yeah, I think it's to do with social networking being able use gifs to express themselves using gifs instead of words. I also think from this happening gifs have gotten more popular and people are really trying to push the creative boundaries of the gif. But yeah, I do think it's partially because they look nice.

So where do you see the future of the gif going? Do you think people will get bored of it again and it will fade into obscurity once more before another set of kids take hold of it?
I'm not really a fan of the higher quality cinemagraph gifs that seem to be appearing. I think if you're doing something to be high quality, then saving it as a gif is pointless seeing as there's technology like html5 where they could be shown in full-res.

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Who are your favorite gif artists?
I look at places like this for gif inspiration, but I wouldn't really say I have a favorite gif artist, as such, but I'm a big fan of the original gifs used on the internet. If i was going to name one person that's really good at using the gif as a medium I would say Kim Asendorf.

So what do you think the future of gif'ing is going to look like?
In regards to my work, I'm going to get my gifs made into large holograms made for a show I have in June. But on the internet I think it will evolve alongside memes and people trolling. In regards to fashion, you can already see it growing on the internet even with stock photography in online shops. It has already started with companies like Agent Provocateur showing off their stock using gifs.

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So you think gif's are going to become an even bigger part of the fashion world?
I think there's scope for it to be used loads more in online fashion, yes. We may start seeing gifs displayed on screens in exhibitions and shops instead of prints. Also, I can imagine advertising may be picking up on that.

Thanks Josh!

Vintage top from Sick, Cottweiler shorts, Dr. Marten's boots, Victoria's Secret bra; Nike top, Cassette Playa shorts, Dr. Marten's boots, Cat socks

Josh and Pablo Jones-Soler made a really psyched-out video he 'forgot to mention' so here it is in all its tripping balls glory.

 

GIFS: JOSH GREET
STYLING: SAM VOULTERS
HAIR:  YOSHITAKA MIYAZAKI
MAKE-UP: XABIER CELAYA
STYLIST'S ASSISTANTS: ALI CARMAN, MAEVE O'BRIEN
MODELS: ED & TANIEL AT STUDIO BOYO, MIMI, ZAINA

TAGGED: Shoot, Interview, Gif