This month’s most loved photo stories take us on a wild ride from the grimy dressing rooms of 90s indie clubs to the extravagant, maximalist decor of Tokyo’s most lavish love hotels, via the glamour and poise of Detroit’s Black debutante balls, and much, much more. There’s hedonism, and there are moments of introspection. Scarlet Page’s portraits of Placebo are a timecapsule of pre-Internet pop culture, just as Gracie Brackstone’s pictures are a vignette of contemporary youth culture. Ocean Vuong’s photographs of his hometown are an extension of his ongoing struggle to articulate the world around him – be it with language or with his camera. Elsa Hammarén’s study of her muse, Andie, explores a reciprocally inspiring creative relationship, while Lovers on Film collates romantic relationships from all over the world. Below, we present eight of the most loved photo stories to appear this month on Dazed.

OCEAN VUONG, SỐNG

“Writing is about acceleration and deceleration,” Ocean Vuong explained recently to Dazed. “Description is deceleration, exposition is acceleration. This oscillation between zooming in and zooming out is something I’ve done all the time.” The beloved poet’s debut photography exhibition, Sống, brought together the images he’d been shooting as a counterpoint to his writing. The camera offered a visual, immediate way to echo the timbre of his writing. “I’ve always been interested in capturing that ricochet, that whiplash between movement and absolute stillness and everything in between. The in-between-ness is actually what the camera can do better than the sentence.”

The pictures offer a window into his family and his life in his hometown, Hartford, Connecticut. After discovering a shelf of photography books by Nan Goldin, Daido Moriyama, Sally Mann, Alec Soth and Judith Joy Ross in his local library, his perspective shifted and he began experimenting. Even the mistake shots fascinated him: “It’s an accident, but it’s not insignificant,” he says. “Sometimes those frames are the ones that take my breath away the most.”

Read the full story here.

MIRANDA BARNES, SOCIAL SEASON

Miranda Barnes’s Social Season, published by MACK and Sofia Coppola’s imprint Important Flowers, documents four years with the Cotillion Society of Detroit’s Black debutante ball. What began as a one-off event evolved into a long-term immersion in this glamorous coming-of-age tradition. Photographing on 35mm and Super 8 at Detroit’s Detroit Masonic Temple, Barnes captured the spectacle and the ornate gowns as well as the quiet in-between moments of waiting.

While the concept of debutante balls may evoke the idea of outdated social rituals, Barnes tenderly frames this rite-of-passage as celebratory. “Black cotillions are education-based,” she told Dazed in a recent interview. “While photographing the introductions in the ballroom, I learned about their GPAs, interests, extracurricular activities and the college they will attend in September. It was a beautiful experience for me to witness each year and I was moved almost to tears thinking about how these kids will become community leaders in the future.”

Read the full story here.

DEAN MAJD, HARD FEELINGS

Dean Majd’s Hard Feelings traces an 18-year odyssey that began when he turned 18 and turned to photography after leaving behind the skate and graffiti scene in Astoria, Queens. Shaped by Greek and Islamic iconography and inspired by Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Majd learned to understand photographing as an act of love. After the deaths of dear friends, the project became a record against disappearance. Rejecting voyeuristic glamorisation, Majd documents grief, masculinity, and vulnerability within his community. Blending allegory, mirrors, and recurring figures, Hard Feelings reframes American masculinity as collective survival and emotional truth.

Read the full story here.

KYOICHI TSUZUKI, LOVE HOTELS

Tokyo’s infamous love hotels are rapidly closing after having been hit hard by Japan’s New Adult Entertainment Business Law. Kyoichi Tsuzuki’s cult photo book Love Hotels is a precious archive of the city’s most lavishly and innovatively decorated examples of these endangered and unique destinations – from extravagant maximalism and Disney themes to futuristic minimalism and light-up disco-style flooring, Tsuzuki immortalises the most imaginative sexy hotel rooms Tokyo has – or had – to offer.

“The Japanese somehow demonstrate world-class originality when it comes to eroticism,” Tsuzuki told Dazed in a recent interview. “From soaplands to image clubs and delivery health services, high-tech adult toys, manga, and adult magazines, there’s a creative spirit that draws global attention – and the ultimate expression of erotic interior design lies in love hotels.” 

Read the full story here.

GRACIE BRACKSTONE, HEAVEN & HELL, LOVE & LOSS

Documenting the whiplash of life between 2024 and 2025, Grace Brackstone’s Heaven & Hell, Love and Loss follows two turbulent years shaped by romance, grief, anger and raves. “Life this year has been confusing – the best times of my life and also some of the hardest,” writes the photographer. “I have a lot of anger at the world and frustration for not being able to change it. It’s been both heaven and hell. Consumed by love and loss… We have to look after each other because no one else will.”

Read the full story here.

SCARLET PAGE, EXPOSED: 3 YEARS WITH PLACEBO

There was a period in the mid-90s when the weirdos and outcasts took hold of the wheel and the UK charts were dominated by indie bands. Among the teeming mass of musicians monopolising the mainstream, Placebo were among the more outré guitar pop bands of the day. Their breakthrough single, “Nancy Boy“ (1997) was a teenage dream of promiscuous sex, “cheap perfume“ and cross-dressing delivered by singer Brian Molko, the band’s louche, androgynous singer with an arch, transatlantic drawl. 

Photographer Scarlet Page documented their early meteoric rise. Her photo book, Exposed: 3 Years with Placebo, brings together her intimate shots of life on the road and in the studio, painting a compelling portrait of one of the decade’s most intriguing bands.

Read the full story here.

ELSA HAMMARÉN, ANDIE, DARLING

Elsa Hammarén’s Andie, Darling documents two years in the life of Andie, a trans woman the photographer met during a one-off hotel shoot that evolved into a deep friendship. Moving between Brooklyn and the East Village, the work captures staged references and intimate everyday moments – lounging in bed, composing music, or wandering the city. For Andie, the collaboration reclaims control over how she is seen, countering the discomfort of the public gaze. Reframing the idea of the muse as collaborative rather than possessive, the project is a decade-long exploration of identity and intimacy.

Read the full story here.

LOVERS ON FILM

“Most of us have photographs from our childhood that we remember vividly, not because they’re perfect, but because they're fixed in time,” says Jack Gunn, founder of Lovers on Film. “There’s something special about a moment that only happens once... in a generation of AI and endlessly editable images, analogue photographs feel more important than ever.” The archive began as an Instagram account set up in lockdown – a call-out for lovers all over the world to submit a self-portrait of themselves together. “It filled a gap on our social media timelines that felt missing; something about love.” 

So far, there have been over 10,000 submissions. If you’re reading this and are interested in sending a photo through, then you’re more than welcome to do so through DMs on their Instagram – especially if there’s an anecdote or story attached. 

Read the full story here.