A prize she didn't want

Nan Goldin, 71, receives an award at the Rencontres d'Arles, the world's most prestigious photography festival. She warns them they'll regret it.

“They're going to regret giving me this prize. Just you wait.”

Her community, not empathy

Goldin shows images of drag queens and trans people she lived with as a young woman. She clarifies that it wasn't empathy for the gay community, it was her community.

“People talk about my empathy for the gay community. It was my community.”

When being trans was illegal

She shows a photo from 1972, when it was illegal to go out during the day as a trans person. One friend was arrested for impersonating a female, but was actually a woman.

“This is 1972, when it was actually illegal to go out during the day as a trans person.”

Eight hundred anti-trans bills

Goldin did a print sale to support trans people under attack by the Trump administration. There's an FBI tip line for doctors working with trans kids and 800 bills against the community.

“There's a tip line to the FBI if you know of a doctor who's working with kids in transgender health.”

The slideshow as art form

Goldin's work exists somewhere between cinema and photography. She chose slides because she didn't need a darkroom, and her audience was her friends, who were also her subjects.

“It's not about photography. It's about editing.”

Everything is in relation

In a Goldin slideshow, images reflect and gestures echo. Nothing stands on its own. Everything is in relation to the artist, to each other, and to the tradition.

Filled with the missing

Goldin's work is filled with cemeteries and ghosts. Empty rooms someone just walked out of, beds from which someone has vanished and won't be coming back to.

I have a surprise

Goldin warns the audience she's not sure they'll be happy with what comes next. She tells them to stick around and asks for silence.

“Stick around. I have a surprise.”

Gaza before the destruction

The word Gaza appears on screen to applause. Images show two girls playing in a colorful bedroom, a cook making pizzas, children swimming in a fountain, a seaside city packed with buildings.

Then the bombs fall

Young people dressed like regular city dwellers watch smoke rise from the densely populated city. A tower of flame rises from a neighborhood. An entire street collapses as people flee.

Children afraid of safe corridors

A smiling Red Crescent worker comforts a shaking little girl. The caption reads: Children afraid to cross what the army says is a safe corridor.

Two hundred thirty-two journalists killed

A man is buried wearing a press vest and Palestinian scarf as other journalists pray. Israel's war on Gaza has killed 232 journalists, an average of 13 per month.

Does it hurt when we die

A young woman with dark rings under her eyes says her kids asked if it hurts when they get bombarded. She had to tell them not to worry, it won't hurt.

“When they asked me, 'Mom, does it hurt when we get bombarded? Do we feel the pain or do we just die at once?'”

OxyContin in the flour

A headline reports drugs found in flour bags distributed by US-Israeli aid centers in Gaza. The same drug that almost killed Goldin when prescribed as a painkiller.

“Do you know that OxyContin is in the flour? It's crushed in the flour that's given to innocent people who are starving!”

My soul is tired

A girl in a red sweater, no more than five years old, says her soul is tired of this life. She is scared. It's cold. She is sick of the darkness.

“My soul is tired of this life. I am scared, I am scared, I am scared. It's cold, cold, cold.”

The Holocaust on our phones

For billions across the world, Gaza is the first thing we see in the morning and the last thing at night. Goldin calls it the Holocaust on our phones.

“It's the Holocaust on our phones.”

A Zionist heckler erupts

As writer Édouard Louis discusses the crimes, a Zionist heckler starts yelling. The crowd boos. Chants erupt: Free Gaza, free Palestine.

Whose lives matter

Goldin acknowledges that 1,300 Israeli civilians were killed on October 7. Now 75,000 Palestinians have been killed. Whose lives matter, she asks.

“Horrible things happened on October 7. It's true. Now seventy-five thousand Palestinians have been killed. Whose life matters?”

Replicating what was done to them

Goldin says Israel is a culture of victimization as a weapon. They are replicating what was done to them and committing a genocide.

“Israel is a culture of victimization as a weapon. They are replicating what was done to them.”

The unanimity of the audience

The entire audience, united, demands the heckler shut up. What's new is the unanimity. In the last two years, thanks to pictures on our phones, a revolution has occurred.