By SERAINE PAGE

Kitsap Week

Looking back, it’s hard to imagine that a little gambling is what made local Raymond Gendreau the photographer he is today.

Gendreau served aboard the USS Roosevelt in the Mediterranean Sea for a year in the early ’70s. It was on board that he developed a penchant for placing lucky bets on poker games.

Rather good, he often won.

With newfound riches, he found himself in the ship store purchasing his very first camera.

It took just one shutter click and he fell in love.

“Every time we went to port, I went out to photograph,” he said. “I got really hooked on it.”

With iconic historic sites at his disposal, such as Naples, Italy, it’s no wonder he fell in love with the images he could capture.

After 2½ years in the Navy, he got out and obtained a photography degree from the University of Central Florida. Upon graduation, he started scoring clients and corporations who wanted his work. He primarily focused on location shooting, travel and environmental portraiture.

“The stuff that paid the least was generally the most fun,” he said.

On several occasions, he jetted off on a magazine’s tab to shoot travel photos for full-page spreads for the likes of Alaska Airlines, Texas Monthly and others. His work has also been featured on the cover of Time magazine.

He also spent some time making “pots and pans look good” as he worked on product photography for big companies such as Macy’s.

Now, as an instructor at The Art Institute of Seattle, he helps students make their work look good and assists in polishing their skills for the competitive photography world. He’ll often send them out to try their hand at his favorite form of photography — what he calls “street photography” — where they are given a starting point and an ending point for the project. Their goal is to document everything in between.

“It’s interesting how they can all be in the same territory and come up with different things,” he said.

But being different is how Gendreau gets some of his most intriguing shots. On a family trip to Paris, he made it a personal goal to use his camera for 82 days straight. With two film cameras around his neck — one with color and one with black-and-white film — he trotted the city rain or shine in search of photo-worthy moments.

Even with beautiful scenes to work with, it wasn’t a cakewalk, he said.

“It was great,” he said. “Oh yeah, it was challenging. You make yourself photograph.”

After taking thousands of pictures, the photographer is now showing a special selection at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art through June 7. In February, Gendreau’s photographer son surprised him by showing up to the opening night of the exhibit.

“He and his mom conspired to bring him in for the opening, and I was clueless,” Gendreau said.

He thought his son would be heading to New York for his spring break. Instead, he was walking through the museum’s bistro where his dad’s 15 images hung. Gendreau called it a “great surprise” for his opening weekend.

While he’s often hard on himself when it comes to his art, Gendreau said he has a sense of legitimacy now that his work is on an official display.

“I am pleased with the results,” he said of the way the museum has grouped the photos for showing.

Gendreau presented his favorite images to Greg Robinson, BIMA’s executive director and curator, and let him choose which ones to display.

“Raymond Gendreau is a prominent photographer and educator — his images vary — ranging from sublime compositions to captured moments and abstractions,” Robinson said.

Generally, BIMA’s board of directors endorses a profile of exhibition ideas. Shows are recommended through a formal process with the museum’s Art Acquisitions and Exhibitions Committee consisting of community leaders, regional art experts, curators and board director members.

“I wanted it to be graphically pleasing,” Gendreau noted. “I wanted it to have life and humor. I wanted to share that.”

One photo in particular has a backstory as interesting as the image itself. “Wounded Chevy” is a stunning black-and-white shot of a deserted car somewhere in Utah. He had spent most of the day wandering around shooting picture after picture. That evening, he found the car sitting in the perfect amount of shade — on someone’s private property.

Despite the signs that warned trespasser beware, Gendreau climbed the barbed wire fence to inch his way closer to create the perfect shot.

“I didn’t see guns or dogs,” he said, recalling his thoughts as he made his way over the fence.

“So, I take my photo and leave. This is somebody’s yard art, basically. I just thought it was a great idea.”

The film survived the adventure, and he got the exposure just right. As he often tells his students, “Ninety percent of good photography is waiting for the light.”