The CFHTLS deep fields provide an unprecedented opportunity to, study a large sample of imminent galaxy mergers at redshifts, approaching unity. We detect candidate early-stage mergers using , galaxy pairs with small projected separations and consistent photometric , redshifts. Pairs which are unlikely to be merging are removed , statistically. The resulting sample is used to measure the luminosity , function of galaxies in merging pairs, as a function of redshift.