Search

Like something out of the Blade Runner universe, Vallery Lancey’s transit photographs crackle and burn with an undercurrent of energy. You haven’t seen BART like this before, folks.

Lancey, a software engineer based in San Francisco, knows her way around the transit system. The Canadian national is a transit enthusiast – and member of the famed Transit Twitter Besties group. She found herself drawn to photographing BART, a system she takes often to visit friends in the East Bay, because “I really enjoy taking photos of ordinary stuff we take for granted and making people look at it differently.” Lancey said she doesn’t drive and has “always been transit-dependent.”

The photographer is relatively new to the game. A painter in a family of artists, Lancey started making photographs as inspiration for paintings. She became more serious about photography in winter 2020, during lockdown, when she began hiking and snapping pictures of sunrises.

Her photographic progression – from the natural light of the setting sun to the artificial light of a transit station at night – followed naturally. When she found herself on transit, she also found herself taking photographs. Plus, she’s carved a unique niche and style for herself.

“There’s a lot of people in the Bay Area who care about transit,” she said, “but not a lot of people making transit-themed art. So, there’s an appetite for my work.”

Much of the effort comes after the photo is taken, Lancey said. Rather than using gel lights, she extensively edits her photos in post-production, applying a multitude of manipulations (turn down the highlights here, up the vibrancy there).

Some of the settings Lancey uses during the editing process.

“It’s a little hard to boil down,” she admitted. “I think the particular thing I do is I play with clarity, which gives it a smoother or sharper feel.”

She started toying with her images’ clarity to hide the blurriness of a moving train or bus, but she thinks it’s helped her develop her signature style.

“The right combination of lighting and clarity make the photos feel soft in a way that’s very visually appealing and un-photographic,” she said.

BART makes an attractive photography subject, she said, because you can view extensive scenery in “good light” thanks to the trains’ large picture windows. The stations themselves provide for interesting lighting and architectural details, as well. In Lancey’s hands, the text on BART’s digital displays glows and sizzles in red. Especially at night, the stations come alive behind her lens. Her favorite station to photograph is West Oakland, she said, thanks to its beautiful cross-the-bay views of San Francisco.

“I like it when people take away more appreciation for the environment around them,” Lancey said in conclusion. “What really keeps me going from station to station on a Monday evening is I feel like I’m creating art that no one else really is. It’s so satisfying to be able to do that – and keep getting better at it.”

You can view a selection of Lancey’s photographs in the above slideshow. She also regularly posts images to her Twitter, @isthelaststop. 

Live Author Talk with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton and Vanessa Hua

Wednesday, Nov. 1, noon to 1pm at BART Headquarters (2150 Webster Street, Oakland)

Register at this link. 

Members of the public and BART employees are invited to BART Headquarters in Oakland for a live author talk with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of the fall 2023 book club selection, On the Rooftop, moderated by Vanessa Hua, author of the national bestseller Forbidden City: A Novel. The event is free. 

You must sign up to attend in-person. A limited number of seats are available.

Oakland's A Great Good Place for Books will be selling copies of Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's and Vanessa Hua's books. The authors will sign copies of their books after the talk. 

If you can't attend in person, the talk will be livestreamed on Zoom. Click this link at the start of the event to watch. No registration is required for the livestream. 

Click here for more information about One Book One BART. 

At SweaterFest '24 this past weekend, we invited attendees to write wintery poems all about BART, and nearly 100 poets stepped up to pen BART odes that would make the Bard proud (had he stuck around long enough to see the invention of mass rail transit). Reading through the works, we were struck by the profound professions of love for transit, which rivaled Shakespeare's finest romances. BARTy is to the Bay as Juliet is to Romeo. Some of the poems even brought tears to BART employees' eyes! 

Image

The rules were simple: Start each sentence with the specified letters and include mention of a few transit-y words.

We invite you to read some of our favorite poems in the slideshows. Click and hold on a poem to pause the slideshow.

Happy holidays to all and to all a safe ride!

Didn’t make it to SweaterFest? 

There’s still time to buy a sweater, scarf, and beanie (the sweater vests are sold out). Head to Railgoods.com to get your BART holiday swag!