The rise of the internet has brought with it a democratization of photography. No longer are we limited to just a few editorial images in our daily newspaper. Now, there’s space to celebrate images that in and of themselves create something important.

The Guardian’s “24 hours” is particularly wonderful, and constantly delivers stunning, beautiful and provocative images to my computer screen.

They’ve just released their “best of 2007″ collection.

It’s telling that most of the images reflect turmoil and violence.

Three images that I found particularly striking were the pitchers of water in Bangladesh, the billboard proclaiming a “new age” in Pakistan and protesters in Zimbabwe being beaten by the police.