Infrastructure: Pictures All Over The Ground

Infrastructure: Pictures All Over The Ground August 28, 2015

Level 3

The above is the sort of picture that makes my wife sigh and say, “Yeah, that looks like a picture you would take.” My favorite way to do photography is to take my camera and go for a walk. I look for anything that catches my eye and then try to take an attractive picture of it, and one of the things that catches my eye is what you might call “infrastructure”: the stuff that keeps everything working. There are all sorts of interesting mechanisms and devices out there, mostly low to the the ground, and the lowest of the low are the manhole covers—which are fascinating. You’d be surprised, if you were to look around, how many different varieties of the basic round manhole cover you’ll find.

The picture above is a detail of one of the more unusual ones I’ve seen. Usually there’s an indicator of what’s inside: telephone lines, electric lines, and, yes, sewers (although sewer covers are rarely all that interesting). This one says, cryptically, “Level 3”; nosing around, I see that it probably gives access to cabling for Level-3 Communication’s internet network.

Anyway, I like it because of the deep rich color, the pattern, the mysterious text, and the effect of the late afternoon sun.

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Photo credit: William H. Duquette


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