Apologetic Thursday greetings, collector friends. We hit a bit of a snafu with our mailing list this week — our service provider just upgraded and is rolling out new! improved! features and there were some hiccups. Big ones. Like, half of you didn't get the newsletter on Tuesday. So, rather than risk being even sorrier, we played it safe and took some extra time (and it took even more time than it should have...) to make sure that everything was back on track. I write to you now with crossed fingers (it's as hard as it sounds) and high hopes that this dispatch makes its way across the ether into every single 20x200 subscriber Inbox. Onward!

Today's edition Jim Crow Road is by Michael David Murphy an Atlanta based photographer with a global reach. Michael's one of my very first friends from the online photoworld and he's created his own mini-universe via an array of top-notch sites and blogs that feature pictures he's taken, pictures he hasn't taken and thoughts on the pictures of others.

When scheduling Michael's edition, it seemed fitting to run it right around the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. That landmark case declared unconstitutional the Jim Crow laws which mandated segregated "separate but equal" public schools. That was nearly 25 years ago, and while much has changed since then, Michael's photograph reminds us that there's still a long way to go.

With a nod to the street sign shadows of Lee Friedlander, Jim Crow Road speaks to photography's enduring role in public and political life. The presence of this road sign, plain as day in its unmistakably contemporary landscape of sidewalk free suburbia, is chilling. It reminds me of the classic and equally discomfiting drinking fountains by Elliott Erwitt. The difference is that there's no veneer of age to give us safe distance from a shameful past.

Photography that's public and political seems particularly powerful and relevant during this historical political season. There are some amazing pictures being made right now - Larry Fink is on the campaign trail with Hillary and Obama, and there are plenty of other stunning photos being made by others along the way. And yes, there's a good deal of ugliness to be captured as well.

All this work, Michael's among it, is an important document of our time. I look forward to all of these photos accumulating that aged veneer. Hopefully in our looking-back future, Jim Crow Road will be long gone and the photos of the campaign will be seen as the herald of a turn towards a brighter future.

Your future with me is closer than you think! I'm coming back tomorrow with a little extra something to make up for Tuesday's email mishaps. Be on the look out!