Portlanders live and work in places you often don’t find in a headline.

This city makes plenty of news. Its politics are polarized, its protests are violent, and some of its institutions are broken. It’s easy to be swept up in a torrent of alarming events—police scandals, brothel busts, a measles revival, or even the threat of a snowstorm.

Yet the strongest currents of this city cannot be found trending on Twitter. Each day, Portlanders rise—often well before dawn—and squeeze their way into traffic, buses and trains. They work. They shop. They play and compete. And they give, generously, to each other.

Late last year, WW began planning an unusual project. We sent out photographers and reporters to find a dozen snapshots of Portland life over the course of a single week.

We got up early. We stayed up late. Below, you'll see who we found.

You’ll meet the doctors trying to stop the next disease outbreak before it starts. The police officer who tracks down your stolen bicycle. The basketball coach who turned around a lost program. A diner where (thank goodness) nobody knows your name. And a woman who briefly halted her mission to bring socks and sleeping bags to people living outside—because she found someone with an even greater need.

None of these people are famous. Instead, they are your neighbors, quietly contributing to the character of Portland.

Their stories show how much we rely on each other to make it through a day.

The nonprofit WW Fund for Investigative Journalism provided support for this photo essay.