Transversing the Bay is a study of the San Francisco Bay Area that utilizes mass transit systems, particularly the Bay Area Rapid Transit system and local ferries. By framing the movements of people and the spatial and affective domains created by these systems, our aim was the documentation and distillation of the emotional resonances and ephemeral qualities of place found in this region. There is a unique social ecology that revolves around each transit hub that informs the surrounding landscape, varying by the age of the line and the density of the location.

The photographs and sound that we captured were constrained by a one mile diameter within walking distance of the various transit hubs and reflect our particular experiences. It became obvious over the course of our study that the core/periphery relationship is a crucial one and our documentation is a reflection of movements from the furthest flung suburbs inward. In addition we found that the core urban centers are oversaturated by photography, by an almost blinding amount of representative documentation that can be found within seconds, so a prioritization of the over-looked peripheral spaces of everyday life become the primary focus of the photographs.

This project was part of the Transit/Stasis Exhibition at the San Francisco Art Institute in May of 2011.

See more from Transversing the Bay at the project site: transversing.net