With today’s digital social infrastructure, it is increasingly possible to live without physical human contact. And yet, modern life has made us dependent on physical infrastructures built by humans more than ever before. Where would we be without the people who lay our cities’ wire and pipes and roads or those concerned with the reliability and safety of their constant flow? Without disasters averted or abated— by firefighters, police, animal rescue, emergency dispatchers— and the stability that results, could we as easily go about our computing and social networking?

When I lived in Mobile, Alabama, my work provided me the opportunity to meet many builders and keepers of the city’s infrastructure. Here are just a few.

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Vicki Valosik is a writer and photographer based in Washington DC. She serves as Photostories Editor for Outside In Literary & Travel Magazine. More of her work is available at vickivalosik.net.