Advertisement
Advertisement

Photographer captures his love of San Francisco

Artist and photographer Roy Tahtinen at his gallery in San Francisco's Sunset District.
Artist and photographer Roy Tahtinen at his gallery in San Francisco’s Sunset District. He sells prints, greeting cards and postcards featuring his heart-themed photos.
(Roy Tahtinen)

Artist Roy Tahtinen seeks out heart-shaped figures around the city and shares them on Instagram and at his newly opened gallery

Share

It might be a stretch to say Roy Tahtinen has his finger on the pulse of San Francisco. But he’s lived in and loved the city for 22 years, so he does know how to find its heart. Or rather, its hearts.

Tahtinen, a graphic artist by occupation and a photographer by avocation, has snapped more than 1,400 pictures of San Francisco scenes. Each photo has something in common: a heart-shaped figure.

A screw casts a heart-shaped shadow.
(Roy Tahtinen)

It could be a rock, a twisted tree branch, a cloud or a shadow cast by a screw. It might be a sand pattern underwater, or poppy petals.

He posts a new, heart-shaped image on Instagram every day (@heartsfound.art), and earlier this year he opened a gallery of his work out of his garage in the city’s Sunset District.

Any description of his art tends to end up sounding kind of hokey. A bunch of naturally occurring hearts in the city where Tony Bennett sang about leaving his? Right.

Advertisement

But a March visit to his gallery, which he opens on Fridays and Sundays, proved his work is not only not contrived, it is surprisingly, well, heartwarming.

A heart-shaped portion of a chain-link fence.
(Roy Tahtinen)

“Love is a theme that people gravitate to,” said Dee Dee Hunt, who displayed some of Tahtinen’s work at her Hunt & Gather gallery a few blocks away last summer.

She’d seen his images on his popular Instagram feed and felt they’d work well with her Sunset Pride-themed show.

“I moved to San Francisco at the end of 2000 as a tourist,” Tahtinen, 50, said. “I wanted to stay for a year and get work experience and move back to Michigan.”

One year became two years, and about then he decided to sell his place in Michigan and stay put. He had his heart set on San Francisco.

“I still have that love of San Francisco and that tourist’s eye,” he said. “I think that’s why this works.”

A heart-shaped rust spot on the Golden Gate Bridge.
(Roy Tahtinen)

Hearts of stone

Tahtinen, whose graphic arts clients have included the San Francisco Giants, Levi’s, Pottery Barn and eBay, had been collecting heart-shaped rocks from the beach for as long as he could remember. Five years ago on Valentine’s Day, his heart was no longer into expanding his massive collection. So he decided to photograph them instead and post them on social media.

“While I was doing that, I found a coffee lid in a heart shape,” he said. “I also found a footprint in the sand as well. It was an early moment of like, huh, maybe I can do something with this.

“I decided to see if I could find hearts on a regular basis. I (later) gave myself an assignment to post one heart-shaped photo on Instagram per day.”

Paint is chipped away in the shape of a heart on one of the rivets of the Golden Gate Bridge.
(Roy Tahtinen)

Three and a half years later, he’s still doing it. After his postings caught Hunt’s eye, he was prompted to find ways to refine his art and passion.

He settled on a presentation for his photos: boxlike frames called cradled panels, which he displayed in Hunt’s gallery. He encases the pictures in artist’s resin, which helps bring out the colors.

Now he also produces prints, greeting cards and postcards, which he sells at his garage gallery and a few gift shops in the area.

Finding hearts has become second nature to him. He looks for them almost every day, often on walks around his Sunset neighborhood, although he’s covered just about every corner of the city, from the beaches to Chinatown to Coit Tower. Rarely does he fail to find at least one.

“I see little markers that catch the corner of my eye,” he said. He’ll often see heart-shaped leaves on his walks through nearby Golden Gate Park, but now he usually passes them by unless the lighting is striking.

Does he have a favorite?

A heart-shaped cloud at Sutro Tower.
(Roy Tahtinen)

“When you have 1,400 kids, it’s hard to say,” he said. But the momentary ones that appear for just a second or two — a cloud at Sutro Tower, a fallen goose feather resting gingerly on the water, a jellyfish at the shore — stick in his memory. Fleeting hearts, if you will.

Drop-in visitors’ reactions at his small garage gallery are almost always positive, although he does get an occasional shrug.

“Most people just see a bunch of photos of San Francisco,” he said. “I let that rest for a beat, then I mention every photo has a heart in it. Then they’ll say, ‘Oh, my God!’”

A heart-shaped goose feather on a pond.
(Roy Tahtinen)

For one recent visitor, the hearts were meaningful because the person had just lost a family member to COVID-19. And some people really do fall in love in San Francisco and find their heart, Tahtinen said.

“Hearts, in general, do elicit a positive reaction,” he said. “Everyone sees something different when they see a heart.”

He hasn’t been able to figure out why his sales are good one day and not the next. It doesn’t seem to be related to San Francisco’s sometimes fickle, foggy weather.

“Some days, I think I could actually make a living doing this,” he said. “Others, I think I better keep my day job.”

He’s lived in the city long enough to know it definitely has its problems, but he chooses to look on San Francisco’s bright side.

“My photos,” he said, “are a love note to the city.”

If you go

Roy Tahtinen’s HeartsFound gallery, at 642 Judah St. in San Francisco’s Sunset District, is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Sundays. His work can be seen on Instagram and Facebook and at heartsfound.art. He can be reached via email at heartsfound.art@gmail.com, or by phone at (415) 385-9370.

The garage gallery, which is along the city’s Muni Metro N line, is a couple of blocks from San Francisco’s incomparable Golden Gate Park. Nearby in the park are the de Young Museum, Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco Botanical Garden, Conservatory of Flowers and California Academy of Sciences. All are worth a visit.

Within a short walk of Tahtinen’s Sunset gallery is just about every type of ethnic restaurant imaginable. Many are quite good. Also nearby are the popular Tartine (1226 Ninth Ave.) and Arizmendi (1331 Ninth Ave.) bakeries.

Krier worked as a writer and editor at the Union-Tribune for 32 years. He retired in 2020 and lives in North County.

Advertisement