Sean O’Hagan writes about photography for the Guardian and the Observer, and is also a general feature writer
May 2023
‘He epitomised the dazzling 60s and then was gone’: the inside story of Rolling Stone Brian Jones
Nick Broomfield’s new documentary recounts the life and death of one of rock’s most tragic characters
April 2023
A lost Ukraine: the photographs that show the calm before the carnage
Katherine Turczan grew up in the US listening to her family of Ukrainian exiles talk about home. In the 90s, she finally visited the country, taking gentle, bucolic pictures that now feel tragic
Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll review – meticulous account of the Brighton bombing
This deftly constructed account of the IRA’s 1984 attempt to kill the prime minister leaves us with one insistent question: what would have happened if they had succeeded?
Jeremy Deller: ‘The world worries me – but for an artist, that’s a good thing’
The artist has been confounding the art world for 30 years. As he publishes Art Is Magic, a survey of his best known works, he talks about the experiences that shaped them
March 2023
‘A tough time – but so exciting’: cult film-maker Vivienne Dick on New York’s post-punk explosion
‘It stunned me that people had to live like this’: Baldwin Lee on his rediscovered images of the deep south
In Ordinary Time by Carmel McMahon review – the trials of inherited trauma
Deutsche Börse photography prize review – stern heroes, uncanny hybrids and a missing person
February 2023
Peggy Nolan: the late-flowering artist who found freedom in photography
Weekend
Actor Cate Blanchett, the rise of energy drinks and the science of personality – podcast
Cate Blanchett: ‘I’ve never encountered a character like Tár. She inhabited my dreams’
Seafaring strangeness: Mark Power’s enigmatic shipping forecast photographs
January 2023
Black teachers, trans women, cleaners and cons: how the BBC’s Open Door allowed ‘real people’ to let rip
It ran for a decade and infuriated the rightwing press, giving a voice to marginalised Britain. Now a new show is celebrating the extraordinarily prescient Open Door series
‘God told me I should take more LSD’: Sari Soininen on her acid-induced photographs
The photographer was entranced when she first took LSD – but months of heavy usage led to satanic visions and a car crash. Now she has captured the experience in a book of unearthly pictures
2023 culture preview
23 for 2023: Observer writers’ culture highlights for the year ahead
From Rachmaninov to pop reunions, Beyoncé’s tour to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Spielberg to Sam Smith, our critics guide you through the next 12 months
December 2022
2022 in Culture
The best photography shows of 2022
A Chris Killip retrospective, Vivian Maier’s hidden archive and the artist who tried to rename a Swiss mountain – here are the standout photographic exhibitions of the year
2022 in Culture
Splicing the male gaze and strippers revisited: the best photography books of 2022
Cutting up works by male photographers, impressionistic visions and tributes to lives spent chasing art through a lens, this year’s photobooks were unmissable
Artist Nan Goldin on addiction and taking on the Sackler dynasty: ‘I wanted to tell my truth’
Her battle against the billionaires who fuelled the opioid epidemic upended the art establishment. As a film about her life is released, she talks about family tragedy and her journey to activism
November 2022
The Swiss mountain with a racist name – and the artist fighting to rechristen it
Novelist As a Vocation by Haruki Murakami review – the secrets behind the literary phenomenon
