A Portrait of Britian in Lockdown – Hold Still 2020

• 14 September 2020
• By Jessica Sommerville
• Awards

The Duchess of Cambridge And National Portrait Gallery launch Hold Still Digital exhibition.

Final 100 images unveiled in landmark community project to create a photographic portrait of the nation. I just happened to be one of the lucky final portraits chosen.

“I visited my Nan through the window of her home during lockdown and took my camera along for the ride. She thought it was so funny that I wouldn’t come in and as always treated my with a smile. She is very proud to be featured in the gallery and is now telling all the neighbours that she is famous”.

The Duchess of Cambridge and the National Portrait Gallery have today unveiled the Hold Still digital exhibition, featuring one hundred portraits selected from 31,598 submissions during the project’s six-week entry period. Focussed on three core themes: Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness. The images present a unique record of our shared and individual experiences during this extraordinary period of history, conveying humour and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope.

Launched by The Duchess of Cambridge and the Gallery in May, Hold Still invited people of all ages, from across the UK to submit a photographic portrait which they had taken during lockdown. The project aimed to capture and document the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the nation as we continued to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The Hold Still judging panel included: The Duchess of Cambridge; Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery; Lemn Sissay MBE, writer and poet; Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England and Maryam Wahid, photographer. The panel assessed the images on the emotions and experiences they convey rather than on their photographic quality or technical expertise. A selection of the photographs featured in the digital exhibition will also be shown in towns and cities across the UK later in the year.

The final 100 present a unique and highly personal record of this extraordinary period in our history. From virtual birthday parties, handmade rainbows and community clapping to brave NHS staff, resilient key workers and people dealing with illness, isolation and loss. The images convey humour and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope – expressing and exploring both our shared and individual experiences.

International law firm Taylor Wessing are supporting the Hold Still project in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery.

They are long-term supporters of the Gallery and have sponsored the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize for the past 12 years.

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