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. 

Kassandra Santillan pictured at Daly City Station, where she disembarks to get to her classes at SFSU.

Do you have a favorite BART memory or story to share? Email a short summary to BART Storyteller Michelle Robertson at [email protected], and she may follow up to schedule an interview.    

In August, Kassandra Santillan started her second year at San Francisco State University, her dream college where she studies microbiology, her dream major. If she couldn’t take BART to school, she wouldn’t be able to attend. 

“BART made it happen for me,” she said. “I can’t afford to live near campus, so I’d probably be at a community college instead.”  

Santillan is the first person in her immediate family to attend college. She’s always aspired to study at SFSU because that's where her aunt went, and her aunt was one of the only people she knew who graduated from college.  

Santillan lives in East Oakland, where she grew up. She doesn’t currently have access to a car, so she takes BART twice a day, five days a week to school. Before starting at SFSU, she’d never really used the system. 

“We didn’t travel far away when I was young,” she said. “The only other time I’d use BART was for field trips to San Francisco." 

Growing up, Santillan often “felt really suffocated.” She’d hear stories of people going to Union Square at Christmastime or the mall at Powell Street, but “it wasn’t accessible to me.” 

“I never really got out much before,” she said. “BART opened the Bay to me. I had no idea it was so easy to get to all these great places.” Now, she takes BART pretty much everywhere. In addition to school, she’ll ride the train to the mall in Milpitas or the Embarcadero, where she walks the waterfront to Pier 39 and back.  

Santillan treasures her time on the train. She’ll do some drawing, finish up assignments, and sometimes just chill out.  

“Every day is so hectic as a college student,” she said. “Commuting is my time to unwind.”  

When she graduates, Santillan wants to be a clinical lab scientist. She’s wanted to be a scientist since meeting one in elementary school during career day.  

“I remember at the end of the day they asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up. Most of them said teacher or a doctor,” she said. “I was one of the few who wanted to be a scientist.”  

“It’s pretty crazy to be studying in the field now,” she said. “It feels unreal sometimes. I know a lot of people who don’t get this opportunity.”  

Sometimes, she has to remind herself: “I’m really here, and I’m really doing this thing I’ve been trying to do all my life.”  

About the BART Connects Storytelling Series

The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. You can follow the ongoing series at bart.gov/news. 

The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. The call was publicized on our website, social media, email blasts, and flyering at stations. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents who opted-in were interviewed for the BART Connects series.