The Never-Taken Images documents a unique long-term project that Swiss photographers Fran-se and Daniel Cartier have been pursuing since 1998. They have put together a vast collection of unfixed photographic papers, glass negatives, and films, mostly dating from 1880 to 1990. Samples of these are mounted and displayed, and, exposed to light over the course of several exhibitions, evolve towards colour saturation. Instead of looking at still images, the Cartiers- installations, titled Wait and See, allow the viewers to perceive a kind of reality for themselves.
The book features on around 100 pages the entire test catalogue that the Cartiers have put together to date, showing some 900 different papers and photosensitive supports. These facsimiles offer an almost real impression of their formats, colours, and materiality. Essays by Kathrin Sch-negg, photo historian and curator, Thilo Koenig, scholar of art history and critic, and Christophe Bra
