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Matinee: 'Nan Goldin: Advice to the Young'
7 October 2023
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 521st in our series of Saturday matinees today: Nan Goldin: Advice to the Young.
In less than a minute, photographer Nan Goldin delivers a slice of wisdom. The video's title implies it's for the young but even codgers young at heart could stand to hear it. Who isn't young, after all?
"My advice to young people is to put down their phones," she says. Bluntly.
Oh, that's just the beginning.
The argument she's making is that social just isn't. "You have more to say than Instagram," she encourages. But you have to get face-to-face with people to develop empathy for them.
Social media isn't good at developing empathy. It's good at generating rants. There are many examples of people ranting contemptuously on social media who have no empathy for anyone other than themselves. From delusional adolescents to ex-presidents.
Lots of contempt. Zero empathy.
She's not done, though. She admits young people, the ones who will live on the longest, will be left with a mess. So she hopes they will "go into the streets and fight for what they believe it."
We have a hunch she isn't talking to the MAGA clowns looking for a circus. She's talking to the people who are closet Greta Thunbergs. Speak up, kids, it's your world.
"Good luck," she says. Soberly.