KDE3 konqueror could display images in a directory and offer forward and backward arrows for navigation, like also Windows explorer can do. With KDE4 this feature vanished without an adequate replacement. Please reimplement that feature, as switching to gwenview and back and forth and back and forth and back is a nightmare.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 272539 ***
As a workaround, you can set up Gwenview to quit with the Escape key (recently fixed in Bug 385242) to make dismissing it easier.