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]
Everything was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s. London: Barbican Art Gallery, 2012. ISBN9780946372393. 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
^For the Prix Pictet nominators, see Nominators: Prix Pictet, prixpictet.com; accessed 21 January 2014.