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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

April 2025

  • 3D outlines of entire houses, made out of translucent fabric in various bright colours, exhibited in a white space

    ‘Memories of these places never leave you’: artist Do Ho Suh and the fabric of home

  • A monochrome image of Joe Meek working with a reel-to-reel tape recorder in his home recording studio.

    Book of the day
    Love and Fury: The Extraordinary Life, Death and Legacy of Joe Meek by Darryl W Bullock – review

March 2025

  • Scarecrow by Peter Mitchell (detail)

    After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989-2024; Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever – review

  • The Face Magazine: Culture Shift at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

    Flamboyance, creativity, club culture – and no smart phones: why the 1980s are all the rage again

February 2025

  • Palestinian families wait for their relatives to be released in Ramallah, West Bank.

    Middle East crisis live
    Trump envoy says US expects second phase of Israel-Hamas deal to proceed – as it happened

  • A Palestinian woman walks amid rubble during a search for casualties at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, 25 October 2023.

    Book of the week
    One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad review – Gaza and the sound of silence

  • 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

    He made rock history with the Velvet Underground and produced landmark albums for the likes of Patti Smith. At 82, his 18th solo outing proves he’s still at the bleeding edge
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