Artwork copyright Raymond Gendreau. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Self-Portrait, 1981

Raymond Gendreau
(American, born 1951)

Location: North Beach Junior/Senior High School, Ocean Shores

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Photographer Raymond Gendreau took the dream-like image Self-Portrait at a fairground in Dallas, Texas. He used infrared film, which captures the glow of radiant energy not visible by the human eye. He layered his silhouette over the painted side of a truck to frame the composition. He notes, "The truck is used to transport tents and fair ride equipment. The sides are painted with giant clown faces. I thought the graphics striking, and with the crop, it becomes a tight portrait of one of the clowns. The addition of the photographer's shadow creates a humorous image of a photo of the act of taking a portrait."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with North Beach School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Raymond Gendreau is a photographer and teacher. He has run a fine art photo-gallery and owned a commercial photography studio. He describes photography as: "a language unencumbered by words. The ideas flow from image to viewer... In creating a single image and deeming it worthy of the final edit, I hope it will be given study rather than a glance."

Gendreau grew up in New England and Florida. In the early 1970s while serving in the U.S. Navy in the Mediterranean, he became interested in photography and photographed street scenes in Barcelona, Napels, and Athens. In 1977, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from the University of Central Florida. He lived in Orlando, Florida and Dallas, Texas before moving to Seattle in 1987. He is based on Bainbridge Island, on Puget Sound, Western Washington, and is an instructor at The Art Institute of Seattle.