The New New Color Photography has progressed little since 1981, when Sally Eauclaire wrote The New Color Photography. The banality that was beautified by Eggelston has now returned to being banal. Stephen Shore, even then, was pushing the limits of formalism, and realizing that, has now begun to re-explore his older photographs by cropping, cutting them into grids of every sort, and breaking down single pictures and published them as entire books. The ironies Joel Sternfeld began documenting continue to be documented by countless photographers, but the results seem to have lost their humor and charm. The deadpan of Struth that was once a refreshing look at the world is now simply dead.

          West Market St. & N. Eugene St., Greensboro, NC, January 23, 1976 © Stephen Shore

If there is a next step in the progression and complexity of color work, I think it will take some time, and much experimenting to discover what that is.

Of course there are exceptions, and I think the Starn brothers have proven that, but in general . . .