The Photographer’s Holiday Gifting Guide

Unsure about what to get the photography enthusiast in your life for Christmas? Here’s GPP’s top picks for stress-free Christmas shopping for the artsy photophile in your life, as well as beginners and kids!

 

 

A gift card for a Photography Workshop, or for whatever you think they’d love! 

 

The gift of photography is one that keeps on giving, and they will have you to thank for their glowed-up Instagram feed. Gift cards for Beginner’s Photography Workshops, or for a discounted Complete Foundation in Photography. If your photophile is already fully acquainted with their camera, a fully customizable gift card is perfect if you think they’d love something a bit more tailored, like another Workshop, a voucher for printing their own images on our beautiful fine art paper, a fine art print by their favorite photographer, camera accessories, or the special experience of a Photo Walk.

 

 

Stock them up on 35mm Film

 

If you have a prolific photographer in your life who burns through a lot of film rolls, picking up some 35mm film, like the Kodak Portra 800, will be much appreciated! It’s also perfect for adding a little character to their analog photography. We’ve got the largest selection of 35mm and 120mm film in the Middle East, so you should probably ask them what they like. (We love the Portra 800 for its striking colors, but you can also get a 10% discount on the funky Psychedelic Blues 35mm for the month of December!) Once you’ve shot your roll, you can also develop and scan it with our service, in partnership with Carmencita Lab.

 

 

Point&Shoot Film Camera Kit

 

This one requires little to no effort from you to contemplate. A no-brainer gift choice if your photography enthusiast is keen to abandon the digital convenience of an iPhone camera for the sentimentality of analog photography. Because shooting analog slows you down as a photographer, this often results in a more deliberate and thoughtful approach to photography, leading to better and more intentional imagery. Once you’ve shot the film you can have it carefully developed by our film experts at Carmencita Lab. The Point&Shoot Camera Kit includes one pre-tested, fully-functional camera with batteries, and one color film (Kodak Color Plus 200) - in other words, everything they would need to start their analog journey!

 

 

Polaroid 600 Supercolor Vintage Camera

 

For heaps of nostalgia and some pretty great images, get your hands on a winner like the Polaroid 600 Supercolor. It's an iconic and quintessentially classic camera from the vintage Polaroid 600 series, so its little harder to come across. You'd be hardpressed to find one from 1988, for instance, that is still in circulation. These were made to allow photographers of any ability to capture their moments in time with relative ease, and physical keepsakes are especially wonderful memorials to have outside of the chaos of your phone camera roll. Don't forget to pick up some Polaroid 600 Color Film along with it.

 

 

A fine art print that supports photography from the Middle East and North Africa

 

There's no reason to be at a loss about what to gift someone who appreciates art and culture when you can get a bold and beautiful Alex Atack print to breathe life into a living space. You can gift a resonant and interesting piece of photography while supporting the regional creative community- Our #Editions collection features a curated selection of fine art photography centered around the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. You can also go one step further and give a gift that gives back to the wider community: like a stunning print by Roi Saade for the Beirut disaster print relief sale where 100% of the proceeds go to The Lebanese Red Cross. 

 

 

Anamorphic Lens for your smartphone camera

 

If your photography enthusiast would like to broaden their horizons with some smartphone cinematography, they can quite literally do that with an anamorphic lens. Anamorphic lenses operate by capturing a wider image than would normally be possible with standard optics. They accomplish this by horizontally squeezing or vertically stretching a wider image onto your phone's sensor. These are great for some DIY smartphone movie magic, and they provide some sweet flare action on your shots for a little more character. 

 

 

Seeing Things: A Kids Guide To Looking At Photographs

 

Got an inquisitive child in your life who loves visual learning? The Seeing Things’ Kid’s Guide to Looking at Photographs is a wonderful introduction to photography for children aged nine to twelve, and helps transform ordinary things into meaningful moments through photography.  In this book, acclaimed and beloved photographer Joel Meyerowitz takes readers on a journey through the power and magic of photography: its abilities to freeze time, tell a story, combine several layers into one frame, and record life’s fleeting and beautiful moments. It is also perfectly paired with the Go Photo Activity Book For Kids, which provides a great foundation for those lessons to be turned into fun photography practice and creative projects!

 

 

The Photographer’s Playbook

 

In effort to #keepshooting, make sure the photographer in your life hasn’t grown tired of their socially-distanced routines by providing them with a collection of practical assignments, anecdotes, observations, and insights from some of the coolest photographers like Kyoko Hamada, Lisa Elmaleh, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, and Alison Morley, and many more. The Photographer's Playbook is  a combination of more than 300 practical exercises and philosophical ones, you they can spend their indoor days contemplating the sought-after secrets and replicating the creative routines of some of the most talented photographers out there. 

 

 

Passing Time

 

Gifting a hardcover bookshelf staple is always a good idea, especially when the recipient appreciates some interesting cultural and historical insights. This one is a great conversation starter, and a great read to pass the time too (ha). Passing Time looks back at 60 years, from 1960-2017, of photographs taken in Lebanon by artist Fouad Elkoury. It took eight months of research for the curators, Manal Khader, and Gregory Buchakjian, to excavate the 160 photographs of this book - most of which have never been published before - from 50,000 images, meticulously numbered and labeled, of the artist Fouad Elkoury's archive. A publication full of emotion, and a perfect addition to your list of favorite photobooks. 

 

 

The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art & Fashion

 

If there's a perfect book for the socially-engaged fashion photographer, it is probably this one. Curator and critic Antwuan Sargent addresses the radical transformation of the landscape of art and fashion through photography. Largely about representation and image-making by black creatives, and how their influence has changed the visual vocabulary of the contemporary art and fashion industries, Sargent walks us through the photography work and photo-projects of artists like Renell Medrano, Tyler Mitchell, Nadine Ijawere, Daniel Obasi, among many others.

 

 

The Best of Dubai Shop Names 

 

Ideal for the quirky cultural enthusiast, The Best of Dubai Shop Names is a photobook by Dubai-based photographer Jalal Abuthina. This hilarious and lighthearted book contains the funniest and most unique shop names in Dubai- From typos to translation mistakes, to the unintentionally comical and even bizarre, it's all here in one collection. For anyone looking for a hilarious and extensive account of the best shop names in the city, this book is the definitive must-have.

 

 

Keep Your Eye On The Wall

 

Another hardcover that should be on every documentary photographer's bookshelf, Keep Your Eyes On The Wall is a thoughtfully curated collection of images and stories, and would be equally thoughtful as a gift. The photographers Mitchell Albert and Olivia Snaije present unique perspectives, whether it is documenting the journey of labourers across the concrete separation barrier, or exploring the layers and textures of a wall in Gaza. Informed, critical and powerful photographs and the exceptional, hand-bound concertina, make Keep Your Eye on the Wall a beautiful object and a special gift item.