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Sean O’Hagan

Sean O’Hagan writes about photography for the Guardian and the Observer, and is also a general feature writer

February 2025

  • Candy Darling (II), 1973 by Peter Hujar (detail)

    Peter Hujar: Eyes Open in the Dark review – visions of a vanished world

  • Leigh Bowery photographed in east London, August 1984.

    ‘A living, breathing work of art’: Leigh Bowery by those who knew him best

January 2025

  • Daniel Levitin, carrying a guitar case, walks along a road with shadows cast by bright sun through railings behind him.

    Book of the day
    Music As Medicine by Daniel Levitin review – musician, heal thyself

    In this fascinating book, the neuroscientist makes a strong case for the therapeutic force of music, describing ways in which it can be a beneficial part of recovery for patients

November 2024

  • two men kissing in a passionate embrace in the foreground, with riot police and a building on fire in the background

    The 80s: Photographing Britain review – in your face and to the barricades

  • From the series Pestka by Magdalena Wywrot. All images © Magdalena Wywrot, courtesy of Deadbeat Club

    ‘So many photographers said, do not touch this subject of your daughter’: Magdalena Wywrot’s grainy, gothic take on childhood

  • Hervé Guibert Suzanne and Louise (a photo novel)

    A twisted tale of strange sisters: Hervé Guibert’s photographs of his reclusive great-aunts in 1970s Paris

  • Young people relax during their lunch break along the East River while a huge plume of smoke rises from Lower Manhattan after the attack on the World Trade Center.

    ‘A vivid distillation of a deeply fractured country’: a history of the United States in nine photographs

October 2024

  • Annie Ernaux.

    Book of the day
    The Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie review – snapshots of intimacy

    A joint memoir by the Nobel winner and her former lover uses pictures taken during their time together to reflect on the transient nature of passion – and of life

September 2024

  • Michael Craig-Martin photographed at the Royal Academy gallery in London for the Observer New Review by Suki Dhanda.

    ‘I have taken risks, but Damien is a staggering risk-taker’: Michael Craig-Martin on style, the YBAs and being the great late bloomer of British art

    Ahead of a major retrospective at the Royal Academy, the veteran artist and mentor to Hirst, Lucas et al talks about his nomadic early years, halcyon days at Goldsmiths – and the moment he stopped being ‘frightened’ of colour

August 2024

  • An alligator lurking in low water at the bottom of the pink-tiled swimming pool

    ‘I wanted my photos to reflect my disorientation’: rising star Anastasia Samoylova on how Florida’s hyperreal streets inspired her work

  • Darcus Beese with his arm around his mother Barbara, who is smiling at him

    Darcus Howe’s son Darcus Beese and his activist mother, Barbara: ‘He was imbued with the spirit of the struggle’

July 2024

  • Joni Mitchell in Window<br>Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell looks out of a window at her Laurel Canyon home, 1970. (Photo by Henry Diltz/Corbis via Getty Images). THIS PIC IS £100 PER USAGE - FROM GETTY. James.Arnold@gettyimages.com

    Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers review – the myriad faces of a musical maverick

  • Dancers leaping in wild shapes

    ‘My flash kept blinding everyone on the dancefloor’: Elaine Constantine on capturing 90s northern soul all-nighters

June 2024

  • Black and white portrait of John Cale.

    ‘Hip-hop is the new avant garde’: John Cale on Lou Reed, anger and continual reinvention

  • Bob Dylan playing chess with his tour manager, Victor Maymudes, at Bernard's Cafe Espresso in Woodstock, 1964.

    Daniel Kramer obituary

May 2024

  • Alvaro Barrington photographed in his east London studio by Suki Dhanda for the Observer New Review.

    ‘Biggie, Tupac, Ghostface – those guys saved my life’: Alvaro Barrington on hip-hop, carnival and his Tate show

  • Prisoner Polaroids all untitled / no captions. These are Sean's favourites / 5 are exclusive

    ‘My role was to be a truthful witness’: photographer Jack Lueders-Booth’s Polaroids of American female prisoners

April 2024

  • birds on a telegraph wire in Three images by Diana Matar of locations where people have died in encounters with police - one in Texas and two in New Mexico

    ‘These people matter’: why Diana Matar photographs the sites where US police have killed civilians

  • Street Street memorial on Lecky Road, Derry, 1971. All images © estate of Akihiko Okamura

    ‘The surreal dislocation of the everyday’: how Japanese photographer Akihiko Okamura captured the Troubles as never before

March 2024

  • An armed soldier sits next to a TV. Rawa, Iraq, 2006

    ‘I was always an uncertain and confused observer’: war photographer Peter van Agtmael on decades on the frontline

    The American photojournalist on his new book, which brings together the US’s foreign wars and its divisions​ at home, with often disturbing results
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