Cinemagraphs

Throughout the history of the internet, animated GIFs have been used for three main things:

• Hot girls
• People falling down
• Cats

Some intrepid photographers are actually using animated GIFs to create beautiful, artistic images called cinemagraphs.

The aesthetic is to capture a particular moment in time, like a photograph, but with more context and action than a still image can supply.

You can see more cinemagraphs here.  The other photography is also quite nice.