Three thousand images a day. How many have you really looked at? If that question makes you uncomfortable, you may need a digital detox. My new book proposes one that goes backwards, through film photography, and today it is available in English.
I asked myself that question a while ago, standing on a beach in Clearwater at sunset. Everyone around me was holding up a phone. Nobody was looking at the sky. They were looking at a small rectangle that was looking at the sky for them.
That evening became the seed of a book. It came out in Italian as Essere, Benessere e Fotografia, and today I’m happy to announce the English edition:
Being, Well-Being and Photography
A Contrarian Method to Detox from the Digital Life. Seven Rolls of Film to Reclaim Your Own Gaze
A digital detox that goes backwards
Most advice about digital detox tells you to download another app: a timer, a blocker, a mindfulness reminder that buzzes in your pocket. I propose the opposite. An old film camera, 36 exposures at a time, and the time to wait before you see what you did.
When every shot costs something, every shot counts. You start to choose. You start to see again.
Why film photography works as a digital detox
A phone lets you shoot a thousand pictures without thinking about a single one. A roll of film doesn’t. You have 36 frames, no screen on the back, and no way to delete. That limit is not a nuisance, it is the medicine.
With film you slow down before you press the shutter. You look at the light, you walk around your subject, you wait for the right moment. Then you wait again, days this time, until the roll is developed. In between there is no feed, no likes, no notifications. Just you and what you saw.
After more than thirty years as a photographer, I can tell you that this small slowness does something the phone can’t: it gives your attention back to you.
Seven rolls of film, and a few rules you won’t like
The book is built around seven rolls of film, seven practical exercises that you can do with any camera that takes 35mm film, even a cheap point-and-shoot from a flea market.
I won’t tell you what’s on each roll. I’ll only tell you that the first exercise starts with a piece of black card, that one of the rules involves 36 one-dollar bills and a jar, and that none of that money is yours to keep. Some readers will find the rules a little uncomfortable. That’s the point.
Along the way you’ll also find:
- the basics of photography explained simply: light, aperture, film speed, composition;
- a way to recognize the images that are trying to sell you something, from filters and selfies to advertising and artificial intelligence;
- and, at the end of the journey, a question about the difference between appearing and being.
Who this digital detox book is for
You don’t need to be a photographer. This is not a technical manual, and it isn’t a politically correct book either. It says plainly what the digital world is taking away from us, and how to take some of it back. You only need the desire to slow down and the curiosity to try.
- people who feel the phone is eating their time and attention;
- photographers who want to rediscover analog and film photography;
- parents, teachers and anyone looking for a gift that doesn’t come with a charger.
If you already shoot film, you’ll find more stories like this in my film photography posts and in my other books.
Where to buy Being, Well-Being and Photography
The English edition of my digital detox book is available on Amazon in paperback ($17.99) and as a Kindle ebook ($6.99):
- Paperback: buy it on Amazon
- Kindle ebook: read it on Kindle
Italian readers can find the original edition, Essere, Benessere e Fotografia, here on Amazon.it.
If you read it, I’d love to hear how your first roll went. And if it helped you, a short review on Amazon is the best way to help the book reach other people who need to look up from the screen.
Luigi Barbano has been a professional photographer since 1994, as well as an artist and author. He has worked between Italy and the United States, and he has taught photography in courses and workshops for more than twenty years.
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