The Brick Carrier Who Taught Me How to Photograph with Intentionality.

The year is 2012. The Higgs Boson particle is discovered by CERN, Psy debuts Gangnam Style, and Adam Birkan is scrolling Tumblr in his dorm room. He’s 3 hours deep with no end in sight. Just yesterday he discovered the New Topographics photography movement and is in a frantic search for contemporary practitioners. Thousands upon thousands of images of building facades, suburban sprawl, and urban landscapes stream through his eyes directly into his spongey frontal cortex. They begin to blend together and his weary eyes are losing their focus.

But there is one photographer whose photos keep coming up again and again. An account named “rasterdogs” seemingly based in the San Francisco region. After much digging and many unanswered dm’s, Adam gives up trying to connect and decides to simply absorb and learn this mysterious mustachioed man’s mysterious ways.

And my word was there a lot to absorb. His archive, which spanned Flickr and Tumblr was, shall we say, vast. He seemed to have an almost compulsive devotion to his vision, straying only occasionally, to take photos of his dog Sophie (rip). https://rasterdogs.tumblr.com/archive - https://www.flickr.com/people/rasterdogs/

His singular focus on urban geometry, free of humans, was fascinating and educational to me in a way I’ve only experienced a few times before, and since. He taught me in a very short time, how to photograph with complete and utter intentionality. Corner to corner. Every single thing inside of your frame has a purpose and a place. He also showed me it was possible to take the inherent chaos of any given urban scene and organize it into a neat and structured image. He organized chaos, separated elements, and arranged colors harmoniously. He also wasn’t afraid to stick a pole in the center of his image. In fact, he often stuck a pole in the center of his images. This intentional dissection made many of his images feel like two or more pictures in one. Almost like an optical illusion.

Unfortunately, his last post was 9 years ago. His name was Jim Dobbins. As far as my research could find, he was Born in 1945, and died just two weeks ago. I was never able to connect with him, but I imagine he sounded like Sam Elliot, of hollywood fame. His flickr profile says that he was a Hod Carrier (brick carrier on construction sites) I was never able to determine if that was an inside joke, or his actual profession. But since I could find no other information of his life online, I’m going to have to have assume that was indeed how he made a living.

I found some old film photos of his on the websites of both the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Portland Art Museum. But no further info from either. New Mexico Portland Art Museum . I also found a photo of a man who I think is him in his youth, judging by the glorious mustache.

©Craig Hickman

I’m sad that I never got to tell him how much of an impact his photography had on me at such a formative time, but I’m happy that I found them and get to share them now, 14 years later.

And Jim, if you’re not actually dead, and you happen to find and read this, my bad.

All image ©Rasterdog/Jim Dobbins (1945-2026)