Kevin – Marina Green


Kevin and Garvin

The next portrait from an ongoing personal project.

Native Sons and Daughters is a photo series that tells a story of the people that live in the city that they grew up in. Each subject chooses a portrait location that is meaningful to them in some way and represents their own connection to the city.

I met Kevin about a year ago. Our daughters were entering the same Kindergarten class at our local elementary school. It was my first time as a Kinder parent but it was his third time around so it was great to chat and learn the ins and outs of what was going on. Of course, once we learned that we were both native San Franciscans the next immediate question was, “Where’d you go to school?” It turns out we both went to the same elementary and high school (St. Brigid, Lowell HS) and actually grew up less than a block away from each other in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. He has a few years on me and so our paths never crossed, but we immediately bonded over our past experiences attending Catholic school and then public high school. Kevin chose to take his portrait with his dad, another native San Franciscan, at the Marina Green.


joseph fanvu photography native san francisco
joseph fanvu photography native san francisco

  • Neighborhood his dad, Garvin, grew up in: Chinatown
  • Neighborhood his dad lives in now: Russian Hill
  • Schools attended: Commodore Stockton, Francisco Jr High, Polytechnic High School, Golden Gate University
  • Worked with the city for 36 years as accountant with the Water Department and Muni


joseph fanvu photography native san francisco

  • Neighborhood Kevin grew up in and lives in now: Russian Hill
  • Schools attended: St. Brigid, Lowell High School, UCLA


joseph fanvu photography native san francisco

San Francisco is the best place on earth. After living overseas post college I came back and felt like this was Oz.

I’ve lived overseas and traveled to over thirty countries in the world. There are many great cities out there… Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney, Vancouver, London, Singapore, but nothing comes close to San Francisco.

I love the fact that you can be anything here and, for the most part, people accept you. I want my kids to work hard to be successful yet be compassionate toward those around us. One day I went with my kids to the local hardware store to get popcorn. They have it there for 25 cents. This particular day, the employee working there gave the kids the popcorn and let them keep the 25 cents. My oldest son asked me if he could do what he wanted with the quarter. When I said yes he walked over to a homeless guy and gave him the quarter. That made me feel happy, lucky, and proud all at the same time.

I chose the Marina Green for my portrait partly because of the beauty of the environment but really it is a place my father and I go for walks. After our walks we always say to each other, “Best part of the day.” I plan to walk there with my kids and hopefully, someday, my grandkids and great grandkids. hahaha!


joseph fanvu photography native san francisco