SANFORD — They captured the tender moments, the loving moments, the happy times. They have photographed thousands of school children — from images of youngsters just entering first grade to seniors about to leave high school for the next phase of their lives.

Robert “Bob” and Claire Creteau may have been the photographers at your wedding — or your parents wedding. They may have been the ones who made sure your grandmother’s portrait, taken to mark her 100th birthday, was just right.

The Creteau’s have made memories for thousands of people in York County. Now, they’re going to take some time to make memories of their own.

The couple is retiring.  In June, they’re closing Creteau’s Studio, which they purchased from Bob’s father, Robert, in 1985.

The senior Robert Creteau purchased the former Lemire photography studio in 1947, and named it Creteau’s Studio. The studio has been housed at four locations on Main Street —  over a storefront downtown, in a mansion near the Goodall estate, at a location in Springvale and for the last several years, at The Townhouse, in downtown  Sanford.

Bob remembers being involved in his father’s business at an early age.

“I was the darkroom scrubber and the film dunker,” he said Friday. It was the era of black and white sheet film and Speedgraphic cameras. Later, Bob, a student himself at the time, shot Sanford High School yearbook photographs of basketball and football games for the business.

After four years at the University of Maine at Orono, he returned to become chief photographer and sports editor for the Sanford Tribune, a forerunner to the Journal Tribune, just after the weekly newspaper became a twice-weekly publication.

Two years later, he took a job as sports information director for the University of Maine at Orono, where he remained for more than a decade, and Claire worked for a Bangor bank.

But Claire was homesick, they both recalled on Friday, and so they moved back home to Sanford in 1982. They worked for Bob’s father for three years before they bought the business.

These days, they’re busy, finishing up school photography as they wind down the business and prepare to retire.

In addition to  individual photographs of school children and school employees, the couple has continued to photograph sports teams. Over the years, Creteau’s Studio has been the photographer not only for Sanford schools, but for Wells, parts of RSU 57 and others. They’ve made up to 7,000 school photos a year.

Just as photography has evolved from film to digital, so have some of the methods Creteau’s Studio adopted. Decades ago, one would pose for a portrait in the studio, now many images are made outside or at specific locations.

At one time, Bob said, there were more than 25 “Mom and Pop” studios in Maine, where 90 percent of the couple’s income would come from the photography business. There are other photographers, he noted, but usually, one member of the couple has to work elsewhere.

“We’re the last. There won’t be any more,” he said. “We lasted until we wanted to retire.”

As they prepare to close the business, Bob and Claire thought about all the years and all the memories they helped make through the lens of a camera.

“I’ll miss the children, I really enjoyed being in the schools with the children,” Claire said. “And we’ve had the opportunity to work with terrific people in Sanford.”

“I’ll certainly will miss the people we worked with and for,” Bob said. “The people of Sanford are real. They’re down to Earth, honest people. We’re both big supporters of Sanford and Springvale.”

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].