Soth VS Relle

In my opinion, Alec Soth's "Broken Manual" revolves around documenting how people, landscapes, and both natural and man-made objects define a place. Barren, discarded, broken, abandoned, worn, tired, weathered, and minute are but a few words that come to mind when scrolling through his entire collection. Soth is exploring a place, but unlike Frank Relle, he's exploring it to the fullest; photographing anything and everything that he might find. Yes, Frank Relle is photographing a similar theme as Soth, but Relle's work is redundant and, for me, just plane boring. Its probably because his subject matter is so familiar to me since I live in a city and, therefore, see urban decay 24/7. But also, the presentation of material is the same from photograph to photograph. Alec Soth uniquely combines landscapes, portraits, and product imagery together to uncover more about the rural town he is in. The fact that he goes from a black and white portrait to a detailed image of an interior bedroom to a woodland landscape is such a refreshing way to visually see all the possible connections found within this rustic community.