Sean O'Hagan (journalist)

Not to be confused with Sean O'Hagan, who also wrote for the New Musical Express in the late 1980s.

Sean O'Hagan is an Irish writer for The Guardian and The Observer, his specialty being photography.

Early life and education

O'Hagan was brought up in Armagh, Northern Ireland, during "The Troubles", and has written about the experience.^[1][2][3] As an undergraduate, he studied English in London.^[4]

Career

He began his media career as a writer for NME,^[5] The Face and Arena, and during this period became interested in photography.^[6] As of 2013, he is one of six regular "Art and design" critics for The Guardian website, and the only photography critic among the six.^[7]

O'Hagan is a nominator for the Prix Pictet Award in photography and sustainability.^{[n 1]}

The term "new lad" was coined by O'Hagan in a 1993 article in Arena.^[8][9][10]

On 18 March 2003, O'Hagan received the 2002 British Press Award for Interviewer of the Year.^{[11][n 2]} In 2011, O'Hagan was the sole recipient of the J. Dudley Johnston Award^{[n 3]} from the Royal Photographic Society "for major achievement in the field of photographic criticism".^[12]

Publications

Books paired with one other

• Faith, Hope, and Carnage. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2022. With Nick Cave.^[13]

Books with contributions by O'Hagan

• Everything was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s. London: Barbican Art Gallery, 2012. ISBN 9780946372393. Edited by Kate Bush and Gerry Badger. O'Hagan contributes the essays "The unreal everyday: William Eggleston's America" and "Against detachment: Bruce Davidson's photographs of America during the Civil Rights Era".

Notes

1. For the Prix Pictet nominators, see Nominators: Prix Pictet, prixpictet.com; accessed 21 January 2014.
2. The award is often described as having been for 2003; as an example, see "British Press Awards: Past winners" Archived 18 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine, PressGazette.co.uk, 29 November 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
3. For the J Dudley Johnston Award, see J Dudley Johnston Award, Royal Photographic Society website. Retrieved 19 January 2014.

References

1. O'Hagan, Sean (21 April 2002). "An accidental deat". The Observer. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
2. O'Hagan, Sean (6 May 2007). "The day I thought would never come". The Observer. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
3. O'Hagan, Sean (13 May 2007). "All along the watchtowers". The Observer. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
4. O'Hagan, Sean (1 September 2013). "'Field Work spoke of a world I knew and had just left behind'"". theguardian.com. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
5. O'Hagan, Sean (22 July 2007). "From Iggy to Gigli: my journey to the Proms". The Observer. London. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
6. Jesse, "Sean O'Hagan on writing about photography", WeareOCA.com, 22 May 2013; accessed 18 January 2014.
7. "Our critics", within Art and design, TheGuardian.com; accessed 21 January 2013.
8. Adams, Tim (23 January 2005). "New kid on the newsstand". The Observer. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
9. Bracewell, Michael (June–August 1996). "A Boy's Own Story". Frieze. Frieze. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012.
10. Gill, Rosalind (2003), "Power and the production of subjects: a genealogy of the New Man and the New Lad", in Benwell, Bethan (ed.), Masculinity and men's lifestyle magazines, Oxford, UK Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publisher/Sociological Review, pp. 34–56, ISBN 9781405114639 pdf version Gender Institute, London School of Economics.
11. "Press Awards Winners 2000–2008", Press Awards. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
12. 2011 annual awards, Royal Photographic Society. Retrieved by the Wayback Machine on 14 December 2013.
13. Petridis, Alexis (28 September 2022). "Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 April 2023.

External links

• "The power of photography: Time, mortality and memory". The Guardian, 19 May 2013.
• Links to articles (behind paywall) since 1984 by O'Hagan about music.
• 'Sean O’Hagan: "If you don’t annoy some people some of the time, you’re not doing your job properly!"' - interview with O'Hagan, 1000 Words Photography Magazine Blog, 2014.