2007-Year in Review / by Justin Merriman

As 2007 draws to an end, I sat down to reflect on many of the images I made throughout the year. I've been fortunate to meet so many wonderful people and I'm thankful to all of them for sharing their stories with me. The images below are my favorite 15 photos from 2007. Each has its own story, like the oldest living bartender to a exiled Chinese poet, some are stories of tragedy like the death of Sgt. Patrick Kutschbach, Sgt. Thomas Vandling, or 27-year-old firefighter Jeremy LaBella. Some of these images are intimate moments of fear and hurt like a young child who's bus wrecked or two young boys struggling with the murder of their aunt, then there is Tiger and the U.S. Open, a presidential candidate, a beautiful Nicaraguan dance, a memorial for a great disaster, the joy of a summer day, the end of a hostage standoff, a Hollywood producer, and lastly who can forget the 25th anniversary of :-) It's been a great year and I look forward to the stories of 2008. Feel free to let me know what you think of these images.