Kate Middleton Shares the Final 100 Portraits Chosen for Her Pandemic Photo Project

In May, Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, invited photographers from all over the United kingdom to photograph life in the time of coronavirus. The photos, she explained in the spring, would be used as part of her partnership with the National Portrait Gallery and a new photography competition called "Hold Still.” And now, the votes are in, the photos are up, and you can view the winners online.

“We were overwhelmed by the public’s response to the project and the number and range of extraordinary images we received,” the gallery explained on its website. It noted it received more than 31,000 submissions from all over the UK with “the geographic spread stretching from Oban in Argyll, Scotland to Delabole in Cornwall and from Belfast in Northern Ireland to Sheringham in Norfolk.” It added, “We were also delighted that so many children and young people took part, and we received over 650 images from 99 schools.”

Now, the team at the gallery, judges, and Kate herself, have whittled down the entrants to the final 100 winners. These images, the gallery said, “present a unique and highly personal record of this extraordinary period in our history.”

The winning images include a glimpse of virtual birthday parties, community clapping to celebrate the NHS staff, those overcoming illness, and more. “The images convey humor and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy, and hope – expressing and exploring both our shared and individual experiences,” the gallery said.

Photographer Maryam Wahid, one of the judges, said: “For me, every single image submitted has a narrative and is a valuable photograph. All of the images taken in this time are evidence of how lifestyle, celebrations, relationships, birth, death, and religious festivities drastically changed during the coronavirus pandemic in Britain.”

And it appears the Duchess herself agrees.

“I’ve been so overwhelmed by the public’s response to Hold Still,” Kate said in a statement. “The quality of the images has been extraordinary, and the poignancy and the stories behind the images have been equally as moving as well.”

Check out the winning images on the gallery’s website now.