Born in 1987

The new digital display named The Wall  is an exhibition space for screen media. 

The Wall will address a unique form of image which is best experienced via a screen: the animated gif. The GIF is an image file format created in 1987 by CompuServe as a portable, low bandwidth image file. Restricted to only 256 colours, and able to store multiple frames in a single image, the GIF brought animated movement to the static webpages of the 1990s in an era before YouTube and Flash. 

A range of photographers, writers and other practitioners, many of whom had never created a GIF, will demostrate their responses to the form. From the graphic to the photographic, the subtle to the psychedelic, the invited contributions reflect a diversity of approaches to the GIF, and make reference to the history of these animated images online.

At the Photographers Gallery until 1 July 2012