Hold Still: A Portrait of Our Nation in 2020

The Duchess of Cambridge has announced that the final 100 images from her Hold Still project will be collated in a new book.

The project was launched last year to capture a snapshot of the UK during the Covid pandemic with the help of the nation.

As a patron of the National Portrait Gallery and a keen amateur photographer herself, the Royal joined a panel of judges to select the best images from 31,000 submissions.

She has previously spoken about how moved she had been by the power of human connection evident through the submissions.

Now, the Duchess is teaming up with the National Portrait Gallery to turn the photography project into a book to create a lasting record of the nation’s experience of lockdown.

On Sunday, the Duchess and the National Portrait Gallery announced that the book titled Hold Still – A Portrait of Our Nation in 2020, will be on sale in the UK beginning May 7, a year after the Royal first announced the photography project.

To mark the occasion, Catherine released a stunning portrait of herself alongside a heartwarming message on the Kensington Palace’s Twitter page.

The portrait, taken by photographer Matt Porteous, shows a red sweater-clad Catherine in the garden of the Cambridge’s Anmer Hall home in Norfolk, where they spent much of last year during lockdown.

She wears simple hoop earrings and natural make-up, with her hair pulled over to one shoulder in the candid shot, in which she’s seen grinning to the left of the camera, possibly at William and their three children.

In her message, the Duchess reflected on the challenges of the pandemic, including the loved ones lost, the extended isolation from families and friends, and the strain placed on everyone.

However, she also emphasized the positives, the incredible acts of kindness, the helpers and heroes who emerged from all walks of life, and how together we adapted to a new normal.

Through Hold Still, she wanted to use the power of photography to create a lasting record of what we were all experiencing, to capture individual stories, and to document significant moments for families and communities as we lived through the pandemic.

Hold Still attracted 31,000 entries from photographers of all ages last May, with 100 final images later chosen to appear in a digital exhibition as well as in community exhibitions across the UK.

According to Kensington Palace, all net proceeds from Hold Still, a portrait of our nation in 2020, will be split between two organizations backed by the Duchess, MIND, a mental health charity, and the National Portrait Gallery, which will help to support arts and mental health projects across the UK, including MIND’s work in local communities and the National Portrait Gallery’s education and community projects.

The book will feature the final 100 images selected from the project, along with the stories behind them.