Hold Still – National Portrait Gallery & Kensington Royal’s #holdstill2020 National Community Exhibition
Back in September, I found out that an image I’d captured during lockdown had been included in a collection at The National Portrait Gallery, entitled ‘Hold Still’ and spearheaded by The Duchess of Cambridge, Patron of the National Portrait Gallery and The Queen sent an email, sharing her thoughts on the project. It has been such a surreal and beautiful thing to be a part of.
Earlier this week, I found out that the final 100 portraits are now on display in towns and cities across the UK. The photographs feature on hundreds of posters and billboards up and down the country, including in the hometowns of many of the entrants. You can find an interactive map of where they all are here.
The community exhibition has been supported by the Co-op and a selection of the photographs can be seen on community screens in Co-op food stores across the UK.
All 100 works are also on show in a digital exhibition in the grounds of the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire from 24 October to 6 December.
I learned that there was one in my hometown of Ramsgate and when I got to the location, it was the image of Paul & Simon that was included in the collection. On Friday night, I met the lovely couple for the first time, in chatting distance and we saw the bus stop together and I grabbed a few shots of them.
I’d heard from the gallery that the photo has been used as one of the key images at 14 sites across the UK, including the flagship collection at London Waterloo that was visited by the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge earlier this week. See there visit over on their instagram – click here.
At 3.30am this morning, we got up and headed into London. We haven’t been there since the pandemic started and wanted to see the exhibition at Waterloo while it was quiet. With the clocks going back today, it meant the sunrise was an hour earlier and so we set off to get there at first light. It was amazing driving into London in the dark, all the lights of tower bridge glowing as we approached.
We drove along York Street at Waterloo and first saw the whole collection on one big billboard and the saw so many of the images around the area. Then suddenly we spotted the one I’d shot and managed to find street parking right beside. It was so quiet and meant we could spend some trafficless, still time, taking in the whole collection of 100 images. It is such a moving and powerful collection of images and just so amazing to see the exhibition take place in the open air like this in the centre of London.
I took a few shots to remember this moment by for years to come. It was amazing how much the light changed in the 20 minutes or so that we were in the area. We then jumped back into the car and headed straight home before the world woke up!
Find out more about the journey and buy a copy of this print here.
