Oddments,  by Luca Bani and Gael Del Rio. A book published Ediciones Posibles.

Oddments is a photographic project that stems from the observation that all images contain involuntary stories that are initially unknown to us. It explores how test strips contain spontaneous decisions that reveal the involvement of the subconscious, an underlying intention. It reflects on the remnants of discourse, on the excess of processes that take place in the darkroom, on what is forgotten.

In front of the enlarger, we make test strips from a negative: this leads us to reframe the image. We take notes on these strips: this gives them new meaning. We keep them without giving them an explicit purpose: this consigns them to oblivion. They accumulate, without order, in a box: this incites them to an inaudible dialogue. At that point, they escape our hands and our intentions. Time does its part. Inside the box, the images have taken on a different meaning, through accumulation, coexistence, combination: they reveal a disturbing sense of unity despite having been born from the gaze of two people and from different places, moments, and projects. These test sheets, taken individually, were created to be incomplete, asymmetrical like odd numbers; but at a certain point they were completed when they encountered others, different, strangers: their peers. This has a human counterpart: Oddments is the result of the union of two people, of two gazes that seem to complement each other to the point of becoming indistinguishable, raising the possibility of a question: what discourse emerges from the remains of discourse?