  Results from the PHENIX experiment at RHIC on direct photon production in
p+p, d+Au, and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV are presented. In p+p
collisions, direct photon production at high p_T behaves as expected from
perturbative QCD calculations. The p+p measurement serves as a baseline for
direct photon production in Au+Au collisions. In d+Au collisions, no effects of
cold nuclear matter are found within the large uncertainty of the measurement.
In Au+Au collisions, the production of high p_T direct photons scales as
expected for particle production in hard scatterings. This supports jet
quenching models, which attribute the suppression of high p_T hadrons to the
energy loss of fast partons in the medium produced in the collision. Low p_T
direct photons, measured via e+e- pairs with small invariant mass, are possibly
related to the production of thermal direct photons.
