Vale Stephen Wilhite, the creator of the GIF
<p dir="ltr">Stephen Wilhite, the man who invented the wildly popular GIF, has died aged 74.</p>
<p dir="ltr">His wife, Kathleen, broke the news that he died of Covid on March 14.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Wilhite created the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) - an image format with a short, looping video - while working at CompuServe in 1987.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“He invented the GIF all by himself - he actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it,” Kathleen told <em><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992066/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Verge</a></em>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“He would figure out everything privately in his head and then go to town programming it on the computer.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">He was later recognised for his work in 2013 when he was awarded a Webby lifetime achievement.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">“I saw the format I wanted in my head and then I started programming,” he told The New York Times that same year, adding that the first image he created was of an airplane.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/04/01-06-17Avion.gif" alt="" width="400" height="149" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>The first GIF created was of an airplane that seemed to move through clouds. Image: <a href="https://thefanatic.net/this-was-the-first-ever-gif/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TheFanatic.net</a></em></p>
<p dir="ltr">The inventor and programmer also ended the debate on how to pronounce the name of his creation once and for all, saying it used a soft ‘g’ sound, like Jif peanut butter.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Those using the hard ‘g’, as in ‘got’ or ‘given’ are wrong,” he said. “End of story.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Kathleen said there was more to her husband than his invention of the GIF, and his love of trains led to him having a room dedicated to them in the basement of their home with “enormous train tracks”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Even after he retired in 2001, she said “he never stopped programming”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">According to his <a href="https://www.megiefuneralhome.com/obituaries/Stephen-E.-Wilhite?obId=24311617" target="_blank" rel="noopener">obituary page</a>, he had 11 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren and “remained a very humble, kind and good man” even with all his accomplishments.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>An unknown icon in internet culture</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Though Wilhite's name might be unfamiliar to many, his creation certainly isn’t. From an origin as a method of distributing high quality graphics in colour when internet speeds were at a snail’s pace, the GIF has become an useful tool used to communicate in digital spaces.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">In linguist Gretchen McCulloch’s book, <em><a href="https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Because Internet</a></em>, she describes how GIF’s are used most frequently now as depictions of people, animals or cartoon characters doing a certain action to represent your own body.</p>
<p><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/04/safe_image-1.gif" alt="" width="640" height="572" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Modern-day GIFs are often used to represent us laughing, crying, or gesturing in real life, just like this one in response to one of our memes. Image: Facebook</em></p>
<p dir="ltr">Whether that’s commenting on a funny image with a GIF of an animal that’s beside itself in invisible laughter or sharing birthday messages with GIFs of cakes covered in flickering candles, most of us can recall a time we relied on these instead of writing or speaking.</p>
<p dir="ltr">She also describes their use as emblems, a linguistic term for nameable gestures like the middle finger, jazz hands, eye rolling, winking, and dropping an invisible microphone, as well as a way to show that we’re actively listening to someone.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Social media platforms have even caught onto how we use GIFs to communicate.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“When you go to insert a GIF on Twitter, the built-in categories of GIF you’re offered are nameable, stylised gestures… such as applause, eww, eye roll, facepalm, fistbump, goodbye, happy dance hearts, high five (and others),” McCulloch writes.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">“Certain GIFs are so emblematic that they can be invoked by name, without an image file … when you want to convey your excitement in observing other people’s drama, you can send a GIF of Michael Jackson eating popcorn in a darkened movie theatre, eyes avidly glued to the screen, but you can also simply say #popcorngif or *popcorn.gif*.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/04/giphy.gif" alt="" width="420" height="315" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>The MJ GIF in question. Image: Giphy.com</em></p>
<p dir="ltr">With that in mind, Wilhite’s 35-year-old creation will stay popular as long as we continue to interact with others online in a legacy that many aren’t afforded. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Yet Wilhite was more than his creation, and it’s important that we remember his name just as easily as we remember our go-to GIFs.</p>
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<p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>
