Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, and her husband Prince William took a surprise outing to help launch the powerful art project Kate has been working on, Hold Still. Her efforts are shining a light on kind acts and heroic behavior during this difficult time in the pandemic.
Kate Middleton and Hold Still
Duchess Kate has stepped out on the streets of London with her husband Prince William to help launch the Hold Still project she has been working on with the National Portrait Gallery. The project selected 100 out of over 30,000 submissions of photographs that are focused on these powerful core themes: "Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness."
Kate and William took to Waterloo and St. Bart's Hospital to meet a few of those who took photographs and who were featured in photographs. According to Hello! the pair met Joyce Duah who snapped the picture titled "All in this Together" featuring her colleagues Amelia Chowdhury and Dipal Samuel who were recruited to help in the Intensive Care Unit.
The moving and powerful images varying from grief to humor will be on display in 80 cities and towns all around the UK. One of the gentlemen in a chosen photo, Sami Massalami Mohammed Elmassalami Ayed, told Hello! "The Duchess called me a few weeks ago and we had such a lovely conversation. She told me how she wanted to build a snapshot of how Britain was coping in the pandemic, but to show all sides of what people have gone through and are still going through."
Sami, a Ph.D. student lives above the Children With Voices Community Food Hub in Hackney, London, and became a helping hand during the pandemic. "I told her about the work they do at the food hub, and she agreed it’s such a vital project. I was lucky enough to help out there for a couple of months, but they always need help throughout the year."
William and Kate also looked upon some of the photographs that will be appearing on billboards, bus stops, train stations, and so on for the following four weeks. She can be seen looking on at the image titled "The Look of Lockdown" featuring a citizen during the quarantine. All of the portraits are available online here via the National Picture Gallary and will be featured in an exhibition in Staffordshire after October 23rd.