Image by Folkestone College Lecturer Selected by The Duchess of Cambridge to go on Display

An image by award-winning Photographer and Lecturer at EKC Group’s Folkestone College, Zak Waters, has been selected as one of just a hundred photographs taken during the lockdown to feature in the National Portrait Gallery’s new digital exhibition, ‘Hold Still’.

Zak’s winning image of Amanda and her son Terrence was taken from his on-going portrait series of Folkestone residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. The image was one of over 31,000 entries to the ambitious community project spearheaded by Patron of the National Portrait Gallery, The Duchess of Cambridge.

Hold Still aims to capture and document the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the nation as we continued to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak. The final one hundred images were hand-selected by The Duchess of Cambridge and a panel of esteemed judges including Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Writer and Poet, Lemn Sissay MBE, Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England, and Photographer, Maryam Wahid.

“I’m delighted to feature in this exhibition, and it’s an honour to have my photograph selected to help tell the story of the UK during the lockdown,” commented Zak.

He continued: “I submitted several images from my portrait series of Folkestone residents during the pandemic, and I’m proud to see one of them selected as a finalist.

“As a Lecturer, being able to demonstrate to my students how to adapt to new and challenging situations is vital. Hold Still is a powerful reminder that photography can play an important role in documenting and communicating our history.

“I hope that my portrait series and the inclusion of one of my images in this exhibition, can continue to inspire my students to be aware of their surroundings and situation, and to seize opportunities to take photographs.”