“This March we are featuring our tenth class of 30 rising photographers. When we began this venture in 1998 we did it with three basic ideas in mind: to provide emerging artists with a sorely needed venue to exhibit their images, to create a reliable resource for the photo community to seek out these talents, and to engage other aspiring photographers in thinking about what it takes to succeed in this profession. We hope we have succeeded with all these goals.

During that collective step into the unknown ten years back we were unsure about so many things: the process of doing this, the longevity of this idea and the level of talent we would unearth. Little did we know that a decade later we would be celebrating not only the concept of the “30,” but a list of 300 names that would make any magazine, gallery, museum or institution genuinely proud. Here’s hoping this is only the beginning.”

—Anthony LaSala