SNAP HAPPY KATE
Duchess’ pic contest finds best of British
THE Duchess of Cambridge told of her “roller coaster of emotions” judging tens of thousands of photos of Britons during the coronavirus crisis.
She devised the contest, titled Hold Still, in May to record the nation’s mood in the pandemic.
Now the final 100 have been chosen from 31,598 entries by the Duchess and a special panel of judges.
Kate said she wanted to capture “the fears, hopes and feelings of the nation at this really extraordinary time, as a record for years to come.
Prayers
“The poignancy and stories behind images have been equally moving.”
The finalists’ pictures will be in a digital exhibition from September 14.
A physical exhibition will be staged in towns nationwide later this year.
Kate has chosen three images from the final 100 as an example of how Britain coped under lockdown.
One was sent by Hassan Akkad, who went to work as a cleaner on a virus ward at a north London hospital.
It shows his ward host Gimba, who’d just been told her mother had been rushed to hospital in
Nigeria. “She cried all day but declined to take time off, saying
‘I have to feed my patients’,” he said.
Kate’s second image shows the
Rev Tim Hayward at his church in
Bunbury, Cheshire, with photos of parishioners on pews as they couldn’t go in person.
He said: “Their photos in church were a symbol that they and their loved ones were still very much in our thoughts and prayers.”
Kate’s final image sent in by Robert Coyle shows his partner and their son and is titled: “We’re really lucky to have a garden.” But he added: “Our son had taken to relieving himself on the plants, much to our initial amusement and then slight frustration.”