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Hello, everyone.
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Welcome to our Cross Continental Conversation,
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bringing together the National Portrait Gallery in Australia
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with our sister institution,
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the National Portrait Gallery London.
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I'd like to extend a warm welcome
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to everyone joining us today on Zoom and Facebook Live
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for what I'm sure is going to be a fascinating discussion.
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My name is Gill Raymond,
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I work with the digital team here
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at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra Australia.
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And I'm thrilled to be hosting this event today.
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Please use the chat function in Zoom
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and the comments on Facebook
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to share with us any of your questions and observations.
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And I'll do my very best to convey as many of those
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to the panel as I can throughout the course
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of our conversation.
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Perhaps you'd like to kick off by letting us know
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where you're joining us from today.
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The National Portrait Gallery
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and many of our staff are in lockdown around Canberra,
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and we're lucky enough to live on the beautiful lands
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of the Ngambi and the Ngunnawal peoples.
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I'd like to pay my respects to their elders,
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past, present, and emerging.
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And I'd also like to extend that same respect
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to the traditional custodians of the lands
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on which you're coming to us from today.
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I'd also really like to acknowledge the valued support
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of the British Council in this programme
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to you as part of the UK Australian season.
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A lot of words have been added to the word times
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and used to describe these past 18 months.
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Extraordinary, unprecedented, uncertain,
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we've been in lockdown, in bubbles, in ISO,
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and that dreaded pivot
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has launched itself off the netball court
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and into our pandemic vernacular.
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Independently, the National Portrait Gallery
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is in Australia and the UK undertook to capture
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the global mood of this past period
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through three striking photographic projects.
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Hold Still, The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
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And In Living Memory,
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the National Photographic Portrait Price.
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What better places to mirror the human story
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than our National Portrait Galleries?
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And what better medium than the immediacy of photography?
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It is this nexus of portraiture, photography and powerful
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human stories that guides our conversation today.
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Joining us from the National Portrait Gallery in London
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is Denise Vogelsang,
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director of communications and digital
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who along with other passionate NPG staff,
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had the incredible undertaking of bearing witness
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to over 30,000 submissions for the whole steel project.
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Welcome Denise and thank you so much for joining us.
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Magda Keaney.
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Magda Keaney is the senior curator
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for photographs at the NPG, London.
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Magda is a close friend of the NPG here in Australia,
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and indeed we were lucky enough to have her
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as one of our curators in the very early days,
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following the establishment of our own NPG.
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Thank you so much for giving up your time to connect
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with us again, Magda. So lovely to see you.
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Joining them from NPG here in Australia is Tara James.
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Her official title is exhibitions project coordinator,
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but we affectionately refer to her
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as the portrait prize guru.
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She's the friend of photographers all over Australia,
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many of whom I'm, which I'm sure are joining us today.
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And finally, our director collections and exhibitions,
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Sandra Bruce, wears many hats,
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living and breathing the living memory exhibition
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since it was launched.
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Chief exhibition wrangler and the adoptive parent
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of a fabulous photo bombing feline,
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who I'm sure make an appearance
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throughout the course of this conversation today.
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Welcome to our wonderful panellists.
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I'd like to hand over to Denise
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to kick off the conversation today.
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Well, good morning, those of you in the UK
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and good evening to those of you in Australia.
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So Hold Still.
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I mean, where do I start?
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This is an incredible project that began in 2020
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and the early days of the national lockdown in the UK.
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And obviously as a national portrait gallery,
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our role is to really tell the story of Britain
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through people's stories.
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And we felt that we needed to respond to the pandemic
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in some way to try and capture the moment
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of what was happening to people.
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Because one of those words that have been used,
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it was unprecedented in our history.
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So we worked together with our patron,
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the Duchess of Cambridge.
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Who's been the economy's patron since 2012
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and is very passionate about photography
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on a project called Hold Still.
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And the idea was to capture--
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So there's an alarm going off, no need to worry.
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The idea was to capture that moment in history
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through people's portraits.
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So we launched a project where we went out
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to the whole nation, it was free to enter,
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there was no age limits
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and we asked people to send in portraits
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that captured their experience.
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And what was quite different about this for us,
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was it wasn't gonna be judged on artistic merit.
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It was just about the emotion and the experience conveyed
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through the photograph.
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The response to the project was incredible,
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like more than we ever could have imagined.
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I mean, I think partly due to having
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the Duchess's involvement,
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enabled us to get huge amount of publicity for the project.
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But people immediately started entering their photographs
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and by the end of the six week entry period,
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we had over 31,000 entries,
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which I say was way beyond what we ever could have expected.
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A really widespread coverage across
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every bit of British media
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from the Southern to the Telegraph.
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And we were amazed by the span of entries.
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I mean the youngest entrance was four.
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I think the oldest was 85.
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They were from literally every corner of the UK.
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And what was also amazing was
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the quality and the incredible stories
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that the entrance were sharing with us.
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I mean, we were really blown away by that.
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We then went through the very difficult process
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of selecting 100 images to create a digital exhibition.
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Which was really difficult.
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I mean, I've said several times,
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we could have had an exhibition of 500, 600 images
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because the quality was just so amazing.
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So we created the digital exhibition,
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which we launched in September of 2020.
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And again, incredible response from the public.
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I mean, to date, it's had 6 million views,
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which is more than anything that
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we've ever done before.
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And the project kind of grew and developed.
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The original idea was a digital exhibition.
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And then there was a real sense that people wanted to see
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these images in the flesh.
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And we were very lucky that the digital exhibition
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was supported by Taylor Wessing,
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one of our long-term sponsors.
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And then we worked with the CO-OP,
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who are the supermarket chain in the UK
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who enabled us to make the 100 images
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into an outdoor exhibition.
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This was fantastic because obviously
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we still had locked down restrictions
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so people couldn't visit exhibitions.
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But what we did was through poster sites across the UK.
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So these were kind of on the side of buildings
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and on bus stops.
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I think we've got some images that we can show you.
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We created this exhibition of the 100 images,
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and we tried to take the images back to the communities
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where they had come from as much as possible.
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So we had over 400 posters in 80 locations
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across the whole of the UK.
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The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire in the UK
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also did an outdoor digital display of all 100 images.
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And again, it was incredible because of the nature of it.
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We estimate that over 5 million people
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we're able to see the outdoor exhibition.
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And then it just kept growing,
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because we had lots of people saying to us,
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are you gonna make a book?
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So then as if by magic, we made a book.
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And again, the response to the book has been incredible.
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We've had so many wonderful comments from people,
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people buying like five or six copies for their children
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because they say this is gonna be really important way
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to remember kind of what we went through.
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So in response--
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In conclusion, I suppose,
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the response in terms of the number of people
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who have interacted with it has been incredible.
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But even more than that I think is what has meant to people.
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And I think this is a lovely image just to show.
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These are some of the entrance who went out to find
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their posters and had their pictures taken with them.
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And this just gives you a sense of I think,
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the really life-changing effects
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the prize had on the people who entered,
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the photographers who entered.
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And they've told us many, many stories
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about how being caught a cold still
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really helped them through a very difficult time.
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But also the comments we've had from all over world,
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from the public saying to us,
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that seeing these images and seeing other people
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going through the same experiences
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that they were going through
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really helped them through this very difficult time,
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which has obviously affected us all in one way or another.
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And I've really honestly,
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I mean, I've worked in museums and galleries
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for over 20 years now and I've never seen comments like it.
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Really genuinely has it made a difference to people.
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So we're very, very proud of it.
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So I think I've definitely used up my time.
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So I will pass on to Magda,
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she's gonna talk about our photographic portrait prize.
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Thanks, Denise.
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Thank you so much.
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And if we just can move on to the next slide,
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that would be fantastic.
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Yeah. So the Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize
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isn't actually an initiative that was set up in response
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to COVID and locked down, unlike Hold Still,
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as Denise just explained.
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So it's a long running photographic portrait prize.
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And in fact, it kind of has lineage at the gallery
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back to 1993.
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So it's a photographic prize that is,
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I guess, a showcase of a photographic talent.
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And so that it's judged anonymously based on images.
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And in contrast to Hold Still,
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it has a prize money attached to it.
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So it's got a 15,000 pound first price.
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So it's really a longstanding photographic award
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that is intended to kind of survey and present
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the best of photographic portraits from around the world.
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And I think another key difference with Hold Still,
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the images that we judge for the Taylor Wessing Prize
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are all judged anonymously and with no other context
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other than the image itself.
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Whereas I think in Hold Still,
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something that was quite important and moving
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and looking at the images, was the relationship between text
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that the entrance wrote about the photograph
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that they were experiencing.
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So it wasn't surprising though,
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to the gallery that in the 2020 award,
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we had a kind of overspill of experience
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from COVID and locked down into the Taylor Wessing Prize.
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And that often happens.
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So the events that are happening in the world
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often are reflected in what the entrance
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that we see in the Taylor Wessing Prize.
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And I just wanted to really talk you through a few of those
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to, I suppose, talk about highlights,
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perhaps some different approaches to Hold Still.
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Though of course, professional photographers
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did also enter images into Hold Still,
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but what I'm showing you, I guess,
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is work that was made in response to COVID and locked down,
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but as more sustained artistic projects.
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So the first slide that you saw
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was in fact, the winner last year.
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And it's a series of portraits by Ellis Tomlinson.
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Who's a really, really re well-regarded British photographer
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and who generally works in series.
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And this was a group of portraits
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from her series last summer, as you can see.
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And what she did, it was quite a simple premise,
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but she set out to make these portraits of young people
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who hadn't gotten to have their prom,
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who hadn't gotten to have their high school graduation.
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And she made a kind of in the break between the first
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and second lockdowns,
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and you can see she took them outside and they're simple,
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but very, very beautiful and powerful portraits.
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So that was the winner last year.
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With no intention that the winner had to be related
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in any way to COVID
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this was the winner of the prize.
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The second prize, which is the next slide
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was also a serious related to COVID.
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And again, it's a single image
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made by quite a prominent British photographer
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called Lydia Goldblatt,
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who basically documented her family experience
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and her experience as a mother
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and a photographer during COVID.
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And this has her daughter Eden,
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sitting in a kind of seedling tent.
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And it has a kind of psychological intensity
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I think to it around COVID.
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And then you've kind of got the setting
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of the beautiful garden around.
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Just moving on to the next slide.
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So there are our first and second prize winners
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that very much engaged with COVID and locked down.
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Just also last year we saw--
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And I wanted to share this image with you.
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A number of photographers engaging with
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kind of the bush fires that were happening
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around the world, in America and Australia, particularly.
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And this is a photograph made by Gideon Mendel,
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actually in Australia and which was a finalist in the award.
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Yeah, and really powerful image.
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Just continuing on to the next slide, if that's okay.
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So I basically just a couple more slides that actually
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I'm sharing with you from this year's prize.
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So these actually haven't been seen or exhibited yet,
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and our prize will open in London at the start of November.
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And we're super excited that it's actually
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a physical exhibition this year.
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Last year we went online with it, which was fantastic,
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but there's just nothing like the prints
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and having that physical experience.
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And this is a series again we saw
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in our Taylor Wessing Prize,
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that the experience of COVID and locked down
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still has come through quite powerfully into 2021.
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So this is a series by an American photographer
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called Donovan Smallwood,
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and it's a series of beautiful portraits
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he made in Central Park.
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He himself,
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an African-American African-American photographer
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who lives close to Central Park and spend a lot of time
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in that area, meeting people, taking photos during lockdown.
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And in the next slide.
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This is a really beautiful, simple,
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but very striking portrait by Kois Miah,
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who's a Bangladeshi, a British Bangladeshi photographer.
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And this is a photograph of his father taken in lockdown.
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And the context of this is during lockdown,
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Kois and his dad lived together again
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for the first time in twenty-five years.
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And Kois explains that he kind of feels the portrait
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expresses his father's strength and personality,
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and also kind of perhaps a sense of the challenges
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of lockdown, but also the annoyance of a dad
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having to live with his photographer son for again.
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They are really beautiful portrait.
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And the next slide, I think.
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Yeah. And just finally,
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I wanted to share with you another entrant from this year
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and someone whose work
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you probably know quite well, I think.
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And that's the wonderful Lisa Sorgini.
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And this is a photograph that she took during lockdown,
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as you can see in the title, 'From Behind Glass'.
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So this idea of exploring motherhood and family connection
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during this time of kind of isolation
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and part of a series that she made,
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making these portraits, 'Behind Glass'.
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00:16:25.743 --> 00:16:27.993
So yeah, thank you so much.
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I will just hand over to Tara.
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00:16:31.486 --> 00:16:33.334
Thanks so much Magda.
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00:16:33.334 --> 00:16:35.373
Yeah, it's interesting 'cause Lisa
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00:16:35.373 --> 00:16:37.002
is in our Living Memory Exhibition.
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00:16:37.002 --> 00:16:39.869
So it's already those correlations across states
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of our photographers and stories being told
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that's really lovely.
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00:16:44.691 --> 00:16:46.942
As Gill introduced, I work on the prizes,
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00:16:46.942 --> 00:16:49.592
so I'm exhibitions coordinator here,
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00:16:49.592 --> 00:16:53.252
but I do organise a lot of the stuff to do with the prizes.
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00:16:53.252 --> 00:16:54.872
I thought I'd give you a little bit of history
365
00:16:54.872 --> 00:16:58.411
about the National Photographic Portrait Prize
366
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and because we're on a time limit,
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I think we'll call it the NPPP,
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00:17:01.940 --> 00:17:05.624
which is affectionately known here at the gallery, anyway.
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00:17:05.624 --> 00:17:06.936
Otherwise we'll run out of time.
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00:17:06.936 --> 00:17:11.019
So the NPPP is in its 14th year and it's a prize,
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an annual prize that celebrates portrait chart
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00:17:15.301 --> 00:17:17.352
and it's open to aspiring
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or professional Australian photographers over the age of 18.
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00:17:21.761 --> 00:17:26.565
It launched in 2007, and this year was its 14th year.
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00:17:26.565 --> 00:17:30.194
It's really regarded now as a leading prize exhibition
376
00:17:30.194 --> 00:17:33.843
by the photographic community, I think in Australia.
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00:17:33.843 --> 00:17:36.583
And it's also a very, very popular exhibition
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00:17:36.583 --> 00:17:40.000
with audiences and also staff at the NPG.
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00:17:41.436 --> 00:17:44.931
I think it's because of the stories it tells
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00:17:44.931 --> 00:17:48.151
and it's that wonderful balance of portrait chart
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00:17:48.151 --> 00:17:51.213
and a social documentary of each year that it depicts.
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00:17:51.213 --> 00:17:53.837
So the slide you can see is a copy
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of all of our past year's exhibition catalogues.
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00:17:57.009 --> 00:18:00.529
So you can see just the amazing array of images and faces
385
00:18:00.529 --> 00:18:03.178
that are part of the exhibition.
386
00:18:03.178 --> 00:18:06.154
So generally there's around 40 finalists
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00:18:06.154 --> 00:18:07.570
in the exhibition each year.
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00:18:07.570 --> 00:18:09.570
And we grew from having,
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00:18:10.708 --> 00:18:13.251
a couple of hundred entrance to usually getting
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00:18:13.251 --> 00:18:15.834
to 2' to 3000 entries per year.
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And it's a wonderful prize.
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00:18:18.351 --> 00:18:21.977
It's a $30,000 cash prize and $20,000
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00:18:21.977 --> 00:18:23.230
usually worth of equipment.
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00:18:23.230 --> 00:18:26.945
And we have a few extra prizes like highly commended
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00:18:26.945 --> 00:18:28.075
and the people's choice,
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00:18:28.075 --> 00:18:29.705
which is a super popular one as well
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00:18:29.705 --> 00:18:31.872
'cause people get to engage in
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00:18:31.872 --> 00:18:34.455
and vote on their own favourite.
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00:18:35.306 --> 00:18:37.473
I really love the prize because I think
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00:18:37.473 --> 00:18:38.886
it suits every pallet.
401
00:18:38.886 --> 00:18:40.840
There's something for everyone in it,
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00:18:40.840 --> 00:18:43.729
and anyone can come into the gallery or see it online
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00:18:43.729 --> 00:18:46.485
and find their own story in it.
404
00:18:46.485 --> 00:18:49.612
See something that you resonates with.
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00:18:49.612 --> 00:18:54.612
So the slide you can see is our winners from 2007 to 2014,
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00:18:55.197 --> 00:18:56.950
it's just such a beautiful array of portraits
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00:18:56.950 --> 00:18:59.700
and differing faces of Australia.
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00:19:01.416 --> 00:19:02.249
It's also--
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00:19:02.249 --> 00:19:04.065
One of the great things about it
410
00:19:04.065 --> 00:19:05.402
is it's a travelling exhibition.
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00:19:05.402 --> 00:19:09.356
So it travels to lots of regional areas around Australia.
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00:19:09.356 --> 00:19:12.809
I think it's been to almost every state and probably,
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00:19:12.809 --> 00:19:16.108
I think about 58 venues that I last checked.
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00:19:16.108 --> 00:19:19.031
So this is going to smaller galleries in regional areas.
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00:19:19.031 --> 00:19:21.617
And I really love that about it because
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00:19:21.617 --> 00:19:25.204
I've been at some of these venues where people go
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00:19:25.204 --> 00:19:27.535
and see someone that looks like them
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00:19:27.535 --> 00:19:29.995
or their own story hanging on a gallery wall.
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00:19:29.995 --> 00:19:33.376
It's just really inspirational.
420
00:19:33.376 --> 00:19:37.543
So this is our slide, is the winners 2015 to 2020.
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00:19:39.492 --> 00:19:43.040
So 2020 was a year that already had started to be affected
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00:19:43.040 --> 00:19:45.429
by COVID that our exhibition was only open
423
00:19:45.429 --> 00:19:47.058
for a little while and then we had
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our first shutdown in Australia.
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00:19:50.019 --> 00:19:52.821
Could you go onto the next slide please?
426
00:19:52.821 --> 00:19:55.321
So it's also the NPPP opening,
427
00:19:56.457 --> 00:20:00.805
is the best opening party we have at such a great night.
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00:20:00.805 --> 00:20:02.222
And the next one.
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00:20:04.266 --> 00:20:05.646
It's also one of..
430
00:20:05.646 --> 00:20:08.526
Probably the last time, this is our 2019 opening.
431
00:20:08.526 --> 00:20:10.778
So you can see the amount of people there
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00:20:10.778 --> 00:20:12.700
and it was back when we could all get together,
433
00:20:12.700 --> 00:20:15.574
look at art and drink champagne and have a wonderful time.
434
00:20:15.574 --> 00:20:19.028
So now I'm quite nostalgic for that time as well.
435
00:20:19.028 --> 00:20:22.239
But Sandra can talk about the changing face of the prize
436
00:20:22.239 --> 00:20:25.406
as we transitioned into Living Memory.
437
00:20:28.375 --> 00:20:29.922
Thanks, Tara.
438
00:20:29.922 --> 00:20:32.064
It's interesting, isn't it, to have a look at
439
00:20:32.064 --> 00:20:35.006
that party shopped from two years ago,
440
00:20:35.006 --> 00:20:36.258
and then the previous slide,
441
00:20:36.258 --> 00:20:40.183
which is one of the finalists in Living Memory shows--
442
00:20:40.183 --> 00:20:41.707
There it is. Thank you, Robert.
443
00:20:41.707 --> 00:20:44.540
Shows people getting out and about
444
00:20:45.580 --> 00:20:47.329
for a New Year's Eve party
445
00:20:47.329 --> 00:20:48.792
and I don't know about the social distancing
446
00:20:48.792 --> 00:20:49.625
and that shot.
447
00:20:49.625 --> 00:20:52.592
But it kind of has that juxtaposition
448
00:20:52.592 --> 00:20:54.094
of people still wanting to get out
449
00:20:54.094 --> 00:20:55.678
and socialise and be together.
450
00:20:55.678 --> 00:20:59.261
But under this universal, sort of situation
451
00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:04.346
we've got with COVID-19.
452
00:21:04.346 --> 00:21:07.834
And that was really our starting point when we--
453
00:21:07.834 --> 00:21:10.883
Last year when we started talking about what the NPPP
454
00:21:10.883 --> 00:21:12.966
might look like for 2021.
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00:21:14.140 --> 00:21:16.315
And if we pop forward a couple of slides, Robert,
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00:21:16.315 --> 00:21:18.863
just to the first shot of Living Memory.
457
00:21:18.863 --> 00:21:20.402
There it is.
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00:21:20.402 --> 00:21:24.374
Last year because of the impacts of COVID
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00:21:24.374 --> 00:21:28.088
and because of the previous situations
460
00:21:28.088 --> 00:21:29.551
that Australia had been through,
461
00:21:29.551 --> 00:21:33.220
before COVID we had bush fires, it had been--
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00:21:33.220 --> 00:21:36.382
And Gill mentioned this earlier on in her introduction.
463
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It has been all of the times, extraordinary times,
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hard times, times where we had to show our resilience
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and our love for one another.
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00:21:47.069 --> 00:21:49.490
And because we were going through all of these things,
467
00:21:49.490 --> 00:21:53.162
when we started talking about what in NPPP could look like,
468
00:21:53.162 --> 00:21:54.996
knowing that the photographers were going
469
00:21:54.996 --> 00:21:57.000
to be capturing their lived experiences
470
00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:59.381
from essentially October, 2019,
471
00:21:59.381 --> 00:22:02.926
right through until March this year,
472
00:22:02.926 --> 00:22:07.426
we thought we needed to recognise what these experiences
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has been like for people around Australia.
474
00:22:09.379 --> 00:22:11.921
And so we decided to create, I guess,
475
00:22:11.921 --> 00:22:14.049
a bit of a special edition of the NPPP,
476
00:22:14.049 --> 00:22:17.216
and we chose to call it Living Memory.
477
00:22:18.504 --> 00:22:21.515
We didn't put any strictures around
478
00:22:21.515 --> 00:22:24.574
what we wanted Australian photographers to shoot,
479
00:22:24.574 --> 00:22:27.079
we weren't asking them to go out and shoot lockdown
480
00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:29.329
or shoot isolation or shoot
481
00:22:30.786 --> 00:22:33.997
having to stay in their own homes.
482
00:22:33.997 --> 00:22:37.619
But we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that entrants
483
00:22:37.619 --> 00:22:41.542
would submit imagery from those periods,
484
00:22:41.542 --> 00:22:43.045
along with the smaller moments,
485
00:22:43.045 --> 00:22:46.049
along with those other moments in people's lives,
486
00:22:46.049 --> 00:22:48.764
where they're capturing portraits of their loved ones
487
00:22:48.764 --> 00:22:51.021
or capturing portraits of people that they meet.
488
00:22:51.021 --> 00:22:54.068
We absolutely knew that there would be a presence
489
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within this period.
490
00:22:55.693 --> 00:22:59.983
And so if we pop to the next slide, Robert.
491
00:22:59.983 --> 00:23:02.893
Tyler mentioned that we normally get about 40 finalists.
492
00:23:02.893 --> 00:23:06.109
We made the decision to give over an entire pavilion
493
00:23:06.109 --> 00:23:09.025
of our gallery for Living Memory.
494
00:23:09.025 --> 00:23:12.929
Normally we would give it about half of the amount of space.
495
00:23:12.929 --> 00:23:17.050
And so we have 79 works in Living Memory this year.
496
00:23:17.050 --> 00:23:20.130
And that's a tile of all of them.
497
00:23:20.130 --> 00:23:23.514
Just to give you a bit of a sense of the--
498
00:23:23.514 --> 00:23:25.395
I guess, even just looking at them like that,
499
00:23:25.395 --> 00:23:27.481
there really is an amazing sense
500
00:23:27.481 --> 00:23:30.449
of drama captured within them.
501
00:23:30.449 --> 00:23:32.949
And going onto the next slide.
502
00:23:33.789 --> 00:23:38.789
It's interesting because we again, installed the exhibition
503
00:23:39.048 --> 00:23:42.715
and it was almost like Groundhog day for us.
504
00:23:43.673 --> 00:23:47.133
Last year, we managed to keep the NPP open
505
00:23:47.133 --> 00:23:48.511
for a couple of weeks.
506
00:23:48.511 --> 00:23:51.271
This year we had the NPP opened for a couple of weeks,
507
00:23:51.271 --> 00:23:53.445
and then we went into lock down again.
508
00:23:53.445 --> 00:23:57.823
And so we ended up with this beautiful offering
509
00:23:57.823 --> 00:23:58.949
to the Australian public
510
00:23:58.949 --> 00:24:02.707
that people couldn't enjoy in the space.
511
00:24:02.707 --> 00:24:04.668
However, part of our commitment
512
00:24:04.668 --> 00:24:07.918
to the artistic community of Australia,
513
00:24:09.013 --> 00:24:10.681
going through these hard times
514
00:24:10.681 --> 00:24:13.611
was to see what else we could do for our photographers
515
00:24:13.611 --> 00:24:15.907
that were able to,
516
00:24:15.907 --> 00:24:18.492
or that were lucky enough to become finalists,
517
00:24:18.492 --> 00:24:20.659
not just giving them more,
518
00:24:22.908 --> 00:24:24.526
as in doubling the number of finalists,
519
00:24:24.526 --> 00:24:26.616
but also we decided to offer them
520
00:24:26.616 --> 00:24:28.168
a bit of a supporting payment
521
00:24:28.168 --> 00:24:29.803
to help them get their work to us,
522
00:24:29.803 --> 00:24:31.852
which we don't normally do.
523
00:24:31.852 --> 00:24:33.185
And with the help of our team
524
00:24:33.185 --> 00:24:34.567
at the National Portrait Gallery,
525
00:24:34.567 --> 00:24:37.611
we also developed a series of mentoring and professional
526
00:24:37.611 --> 00:24:40.453
development opportunities that were starting to roll out
527
00:24:40.453 --> 00:24:42.497
for finalists now as well
528
00:24:42.497 --> 00:24:46.414
in spite of having to go into another lockdown.
529
00:24:47.881 --> 00:24:50.095
Prizes I think, they're really interesting
530
00:24:50.095 --> 00:24:52.389
because the subject matter is so diverse.
531
00:24:52.389 --> 00:24:55.312
And if we pop along to the next slide,
532
00:24:55.312 --> 00:24:57.654
when it comes to designing the show,
533
00:24:57.654 --> 00:25:00.574
we end up seeing these really interesting juxtapositions
534
00:25:00.574 --> 00:25:02.782
between works when we're lucky enough
535
00:25:02.782 --> 00:25:04.784
to be in the physical spaces,
536
00:25:04.784 --> 00:25:09.293
because it is about individual artists experiences
537
00:25:09.293 --> 00:25:12.588
being put alongside the next individual artistic experience.
538
00:25:12.588 --> 00:25:16.838
And so here these are, to be fair, two COVID shots.
539
00:25:19.311 --> 00:25:21.029
We have a couple being released from lockdown
540
00:25:21.029 --> 00:25:23.458
and going for a bit of a swim in the ocean
541
00:25:23.458 --> 00:25:27.120
right next to a young girl getting her fixed
542
00:25:27.120 --> 00:25:28.671
on a laptop at nighttime.
543
00:25:28.671 --> 00:25:32.531
And I think there are two scenes of lockdown
544
00:25:32.531 --> 00:25:35.775
that a lot of people can really resonate with.
545
00:25:35.775 --> 00:25:39.040
Now, if we go to the final slide in my little suite.
546
00:25:39.040 --> 00:25:40.557
This is a shot of the outside
547
00:25:40.557 --> 00:25:42.961
of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra
548
00:25:42.961 --> 00:25:47.561
and we have our lovely Living Memory billboard on the side.
549
00:25:47.561 --> 00:25:48.864
When we had to go into lockdown,
550
00:25:48.864 --> 00:25:50.803
two weeks into this exhibition,
551
00:25:50.803 --> 00:25:55.470
we knew that we couldn't, sort of just settle on saying,
552
00:25:57.269 --> 00:25:59.021
oh, well, what are we going to do?
553
00:25:59.021 --> 00:26:04.021
We absolutely decided that we have to turn the virtual world
554
00:26:04.331 --> 00:26:06.444
to our benefit again.
555
00:26:06.444 --> 00:26:08.498
And I guess this programme is one of those,
556
00:26:08.498 --> 00:26:12.526
but we've been working really hard to give everybody
557
00:26:12.526 --> 00:26:15.785
as much opportunity to enjoy Living Memory as possible,
558
00:26:15.785 --> 00:26:17.834
even though you can't actually,
559
00:26:17.834 --> 00:26:20.196
none of us can set foot in our building right now.
560
00:26:20.196 --> 00:26:24.299
And over the optimist, we have also decided,
561
00:26:24.299 --> 00:26:27.455
or we made the decision that rather than closing
562
00:26:27.455 --> 00:26:30.682
the exhibition on the 7th of November, as we would have had,
563
00:26:30.682 --> 00:26:32.676
if we'd had a normal year in Canberra,
564
00:26:32.676 --> 00:26:34.579
we've decided to extend the exhibition
565
00:26:34.579 --> 00:26:38.644
until the 16th of January, because we really do want,
566
00:26:38.644 --> 00:26:40.980
like Magda said earlier,
567
00:26:40.980 --> 00:26:43.988
we really do hope that people can come in
568
00:26:43.988 --> 00:26:46.911
and view the artworks that we've been waiting
569
00:26:46.911 --> 00:26:48.448
to seen in the flesh.
570
00:26:48.448 --> 00:26:51.118
As Magda said, there is nothing like seeing
571
00:26:51.118 --> 00:26:54.535
the work on the wall in the first person.
572
00:26:56.497 --> 00:26:58.259
Over to you Gill.
573
00:26:58.259 --> 00:27:01.182
Thanks so much to all of you for giving us an introduction
574
00:27:01.182 --> 00:27:04.015
to the three photographic projects
575
00:27:04.967 --> 00:27:07.149
that we're talking about in today's discussion.
576
00:27:07.149 --> 00:27:10.360
I think the first thing that struck us when we were thinking
577
00:27:10.360 --> 00:27:12.789
about developing this programme was the apparent
578
00:27:12.789 --> 00:27:16.276
commonality of humanist experience across the globe.
579
00:27:16.276 --> 00:27:18.420
And I think in some ways the similarities
580
00:27:18.420 --> 00:27:21.081
appeared to outweigh the differences.
581
00:27:21.081 --> 00:27:23.608
The backgrounds of the portraits might contain
582
00:27:23.608 --> 00:27:27.707
in our instance in EMU, rather than maybe a Robin,
583
00:27:27.707 --> 00:27:31.720
but the stories told the heartbreaks, the quiet moments,
584
00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:34.138
the small joys, the hope against adversity,
585
00:27:34.138 --> 00:27:37.418
all of these were strikingly homogenous themes.
586
00:27:37.418 --> 00:27:40.713
But the more we explored and dug around in the images,
587
00:27:40.713 --> 00:27:43.838
unique differences between our country started to emerge.
588
00:27:43.838 --> 00:27:48.803
I'd hazard a guess that probably Mullet Sporting Shearers
589
00:27:48.803 --> 00:27:51.531
may have not made an appearance in the 30,000 portraits
590
00:27:51.531 --> 00:27:53.042
in Hold Still, I could be wrong.
591
00:27:53.042 --> 00:27:54.177
I could be wrong.
592
00:27:54.177 --> 00:27:56.895
But I'm interested to hand back to our panel
593
00:27:56.895 --> 00:27:59.635
to maybe explore some of the similarities and differences
594
00:27:59.635 --> 00:28:02.209
that they've observed between our countries
595
00:28:02.209 --> 00:28:04.376
and our countries photographers response
596
00:28:04.376 --> 00:28:07.543
to this particular period in our time.
597
00:28:08.995 --> 00:28:11.285
Who would like to take a lead?
598
00:28:11.285 --> 00:28:13.510
How about I'll jump straight back in there
599
00:28:13.510 --> 00:28:16.482
and then maybe Tara we can
600
00:28:16.482 --> 00:28:19.609
have a little bit of fun with some of the images
601
00:28:19.609 --> 00:28:23.549
in our little quintessentially Australian section.
602
00:28:23.549 --> 00:28:26.103
I should probably note too that
603
00:28:26.103 --> 00:28:29.186
some of these experiences are intense
604
00:28:31.182 --> 00:28:34.515
and we can't lose sight of the fact that
605
00:28:36.950 --> 00:28:41.950
there are feelings of trauma and impact that do come through
606
00:28:42.339 --> 00:28:43.466
in some of the imagery
607
00:28:43.466 --> 00:28:47.256
and absolutely within the UK experience as well.
608
00:28:47.256 --> 00:28:51.498
And we're so honoured, not just from the photographers,
609
00:28:51.498 --> 00:28:54.641
but also honoured by the subjects to allow us
610
00:28:54.641 --> 00:28:57.758
into having these little snapshots of their lives.
611
00:28:57.758 --> 00:29:00.508
And we absolutely recognise that.
612
00:29:02.126 --> 00:29:03.998
In some cases we're seeing people
613
00:29:03.998 --> 00:29:06.285
in a really tough moment in their lives.
614
00:29:06.285 --> 00:29:09.952
But this first one that I wanted to bring up
615
00:29:11.477 --> 00:29:14.394
is a work that was shot just inside
616
00:29:17.807 --> 00:29:20.018
the timing for Living Memory.
617
00:29:20.018 --> 00:29:21.187
So entries opened,
618
00:29:21.187 --> 00:29:25.138
I think around the 23rd of October in 2019,
619
00:29:25.138 --> 00:29:29.223
and this portrait was shot two or three days later.
620
00:29:29.223 --> 00:29:32.677
And it's Ruby James, Inma by Adele Wilkes.
621
00:29:32.677 --> 00:29:37.108
And Adele was invited up to the centre of Australia
622
00:29:37.108 --> 00:29:39.691
by the local community to shoot
623
00:29:41.239 --> 00:29:45.072
at an official formal ceremony that celebrated
624
00:29:46.456 --> 00:29:51.105
older rule being handed back to its custodial owners.
625
00:29:51.105 --> 00:29:53.272
And what were they called?
626
00:29:54.247 --> 00:29:57.295
The tourist walks being stopped.
627
00:29:57.295 --> 00:29:58.586
So no longer--
628
00:29:58.586 --> 00:29:59.836
From the 25th of October,
629
00:29:59.836 --> 00:30:03.385
you could no longer take a trek up all the route.
630
00:30:03.385 --> 00:30:05.680
As a sacred site, it was recognised
631
00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:09.392
that that was no longer appropriate.
632
00:30:09.392 --> 00:30:12.491
And so Inma is a traditional dance ceremony
633
00:30:12.491 --> 00:30:17.324
that was part of that day of commemoration and celebration
634
00:30:18.882 --> 00:30:21.095
of older being returned to the Anaku people.
635
00:30:21.095 --> 00:30:26.095
And I just feel as though it's such an important moment.
636
00:30:26.110 --> 00:30:27.528
The portrait itself,
637
00:30:27.528 --> 00:30:30.070
there's a beautiful formality to it
638
00:30:30.070 --> 00:30:33.490
that late afternoon, early evening light
639
00:30:33.490 --> 00:30:35.236
coming across from the left,
640
00:30:35.236 --> 00:30:36.651
it really is the red centre.
641
00:30:36.651 --> 00:30:40.276
You can see it infused in not just the ground,
642
00:30:40.276 --> 00:30:42.700
but in the very light itself.
643
00:30:42.700 --> 00:30:46.117
And I find it really extraordinary that this was a moment
644
00:30:46.117 --> 00:30:49.073
that is such an important moment in Australian history.
645
00:30:49.073 --> 00:30:53.005
And it's one that will stand the test of time.
646
00:30:53.005 --> 00:30:57.755
But really it has been what came after it with bush fires
647
00:30:58.844 --> 00:31:00.344
and with COVID-19.
648
00:31:01.879 --> 00:31:03.088
It's extraordinary to think that
649
00:31:03.088 --> 00:31:05.507
this was only a little over 18 months ago
650
00:31:05.507 --> 00:31:06.340
that this occurred,
651
00:31:06.340 --> 00:31:10.340
or just nearly two years ago that this occurred.
652
00:31:11.882 --> 00:31:16.344
Should we move on to the next slide?
653
00:31:16.344 --> 00:31:18.136
Yes. What was the--
654
00:31:18.136 --> 00:31:19.667
Yeah, just a warning, I guess,
655
00:31:19.667 --> 00:31:21.954
for everyone that there are some triggering images
656
00:31:21.954 --> 00:31:26.058
for this one with bushfire photos from Australia,
657
00:31:26.058 --> 00:31:29.833
and to acknowledge that we are still healing, repairing
658
00:31:29.833 --> 00:31:33.000
and still rebuilding from those fires.
659
00:31:34.169 --> 00:31:39.086
So yeah, just a little bit about it was in the 2019 to '20,
660
00:31:41.024 --> 00:31:43.123
bush fires burned across many states of Australia
661
00:31:43.123 --> 00:31:45.290
with catastrophic effects.
662
00:31:46.460 --> 00:31:49.112
There was 33 people who lost their lives.
663
00:31:49.112 --> 00:31:51.961
17 million hectares of land was decimated
664
00:31:51.961 --> 00:31:54.461
and over 3000 homes destroyed.
665
00:31:55.473 --> 00:31:57.381
So we really thank the people
666
00:31:57.381 --> 00:31:59.537
of the generosity of sharing these stories
667
00:31:59.537 --> 00:32:01.693
that actually got word out there
668
00:32:01.693 --> 00:32:03.161
of what was happening in Australia
669
00:32:03.161 --> 00:32:06.425
and also we received lots of help.
670
00:32:06.425 --> 00:32:08.624
So this first image is,
671
00:32:08.624 --> 00:32:10.749
it's by Alison Marion and it was taken
672
00:32:10.749 --> 00:32:12.916
on New Year's Eve in 2019.
673
00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:15.874
It's just an iconic image now.
674
00:32:15.874 --> 00:32:19.344
So it's taken on her iPhone and it's not digitally enhanced.
675
00:32:19.344 --> 00:32:22.229
So this was the colour of the sky.
676
00:32:22.229 --> 00:32:25.936
It's her and her family playing Mallacoota
677
00:32:25.936 --> 00:32:30.936
by boat to escape ad it's her son Fin steering the boat.
678
00:32:31.171 --> 00:32:32.214
There's just--
679
00:32:32.214 --> 00:32:33.512
It's just an amazing image.
680
00:32:33.512 --> 00:32:36.064
There's just a palpable tension in there.
681
00:32:36.064 --> 00:32:37.687
And that feeling when I look at it,
682
00:32:37.687 --> 00:32:42.032
I get that feeling of not being able to take a deep breath.
683
00:32:42.032 --> 00:32:44.332
And it went from Allison,
684
00:32:44.332 --> 00:32:48.325
who's a photographer taking this photo
685
00:32:48.325 --> 00:32:50.047
in a real life moment.
686
00:32:50.047 --> 00:32:51.587
And I think within a couple of days,
687
00:32:51.587 --> 00:32:53.463
it was picked up by media and it was shared
688
00:32:53.463 --> 00:32:55.910
thousands and thousands of times across the world.
689
00:32:55.910 --> 00:32:59.660
So it really is an iconic photo of that time.
690
00:33:00.566 --> 00:33:04.687
And if we could move on to the next slide.
691
00:33:04.687 --> 00:33:06.605
This one is, it's, for me,
692
00:33:06.605 --> 00:33:10.239
it's that bitter sweetness of just horror and hope.
693
00:33:10.239 --> 00:33:12.527
So it's by photographer, Rachel Mounsey
694
00:33:12.527 --> 00:33:14.944
and the subject is Max James.
695
00:33:16.321 --> 00:33:20.567
It was taken a month after our last slide in East Gippsland.
696
00:33:20.567 --> 00:33:24.102
Max is a conservation biologist and he's standing
697
00:33:24.102 --> 00:33:29.102
in the charred remains of his incinerated property.
698
00:33:29.153 --> 00:33:32.659
And Max now documents the return of the native plant,
699
00:33:32.659 --> 00:33:35.909
animal and bird life as the land heals.
700
00:33:38.355 --> 00:33:41.858
Those really beautiful thing in the subject statement.
701
00:33:41.858 --> 00:33:44.778
So Max said at the time of his photo being taken,
702
00:33:44.778 --> 00:33:46.370
"All has been erased,
703
00:33:46.370 --> 00:33:50.537
nature has to come back through a black blank canvas.
704
00:33:50.537 --> 00:33:55.537
It's a lamentable game of survival, but beautiful to watch".
705
00:33:55.665 --> 00:33:59.190
And so you can check up on Max and since the fires,
706
00:33:59.190 --> 00:34:01.986
he's rigorously documented the return of the bush.
707
00:34:01.986 --> 00:34:05.616
And I think he's up to 101 native birds
708
00:34:05.616 --> 00:34:07.090
that returned to his property.
709
00:34:07.090 --> 00:34:10.301
So it's a very confronting image,
710
00:34:10.301 --> 00:34:14.384
but our important story to tell, I think as well.
711
00:34:15.242 --> 00:34:17.398
Yeah, it makes that a real sense of optimism
712
00:34:17.398 --> 00:34:19.146
around his statement, didn't he?
713
00:34:19.146 --> 00:34:22.684
About walking out onto the brand or his property
714
00:34:22.684 --> 00:34:26.372
and just thinking well, and while he was standing there,
715
00:34:26.372 --> 00:34:29.049
kind of just, I guess, contemplating,
716
00:34:29.049 --> 00:34:30.385
he started to hear noise.
717
00:34:30.385 --> 00:34:32.219
He heard, I think the screech of a king parrot
718
00:34:32.219 --> 00:34:33.093
or something like that.
719
00:34:33.093 --> 00:34:37.720
And that was when he grabbed his notebook and started--
720
00:34:37.720 --> 00:34:41.049
Started to catalogue the regeneration and the regrowth
721
00:34:41.049 --> 00:34:42.714
on his property right from day one,
722
00:34:42.714 --> 00:34:45.964
which is a really interesting approach.
723
00:34:47.080 --> 00:34:51.747
Our next slide is one that I particularly like.
724
00:34:51.747 --> 00:34:55.048
I mean, Australia is absolutely known for our beaches
725
00:34:55.048 --> 00:34:57.175
and our lifesaving flags.
726
00:34:57.175 --> 00:35:01.649
We know what it's like to be able to get down to the coast
727
00:35:01.649 --> 00:35:06.316
and go for a swim and hang out, and get some sun safely.
728
00:35:07.931 --> 00:35:11.848
And so this could very well be just another day
729
00:35:13.983 --> 00:35:15.442
in Australia.
730
00:35:15.442 --> 00:35:19.609
However, there is caution tape wrapped around the park bench
731
00:35:19.609 --> 00:35:24.526
because with public health orders and physical distancing
732
00:35:24.526 --> 00:35:26.205
and all of those sorts of things,
733
00:35:26.205 --> 00:35:30.711
for a long time we weren't allowed to just relax
734
00:35:30.711 --> 00:35:34.761
and do all of the things that we're used to doing
735
00:35:34.761 --> 00:35:36.296
that we've conditioned to be able to do
736
00:35:36.296 --> 00:35:40.100
like get close to people and be able to touch people
737
00:35:40.100 --> 00:35:42.728
and able to sit down on the same bench as someone else.
738
00:35:42.728 --> 00:35:45.733
And so for me, this was a really interesting,
739
00:35:45.733 --> 00:35:49.733
almost quietly surreal telling of what Australia
740
00:35:53.083 --> 00:35:57.333
has looked like, probably since last March, really.
741
00:35:59.310 --> 00:36:01.143
Tara, I think the next one
742
00:36:01.143 --> 00:36:02.608
is one of your favourites, isn't it?
743
00:36:02.608 --> 00:36:06.367
That's right. I love this photo so much.
744
00:36:06.367 --> 00:36:07.533
As Gill touched on it,
745
00:36:07.533 --> 00:36:09.984
I just know it could not have been taken anywhere else
746
00:36:09.984 --> 00:36:12.317
in the world, but Australia.
747
00:36:13.278 --> 00:36:16.086
To me, it's like a steal from an Aussie movie
748
00:36:16.086 --> 00:36:20.417
just called me to action by an onset photographer.
749
00:36:20.417 --> 00:36:22.926
It's Mullet Magic, which I also love the title
750
00:36:22.926 --> 00:36:25.427
and it's by photographer Leith Alexander
751
00:36:25.427 --> 00:36:28.429
and it's taken in Narrogin in WA.
752
00:36:28.429 --> 00:36:31.562
And it's shares on their smoker break or morning tea
753
00:36:31.562 --> 00:36:33.561
for those people joining us from overseas,
754
00:36:33.561 --> 00:36:35.107
I don't know if you have smoker.
755
00:36:35.107 --> 00:36:37.824
But I just love that it takes this sort of,
756
00:36:37.824 --> 00:36:40.411
Larry can view of these shearers are outside,
757
00:36:40.411 --> 00:36:41.864
Leith's taking their photograph
758
00:36:41.864 --> 00:36:43.275
and they start getting heckled
759
00:36:43.275 --> 00:36:45.776
by the other sharers proposing for photos.
760
00:36:45.776 --> 00:36:48.695
So the lovely guy in the middle sort of giving
761
00:36:48.695 --> 00:36:50.031
a little bit of lick back,
762
00:36:50.031 --> 00:36:53.404
it's just that capture of a moment that I love so much
763
00:36:53.404 --> 00:36:54.576
about photography.
764
00:36:54.576 --> 00:36:56.327
And it's the same thing for me.
765
00:36:56.327 --> 00:36:58.443
It's always visceral with photography for me.
766
00:36:58.443 --> 00:37:02.526
Like I can feel the heat of that tin shed and imagine
767
00:37:02.526 --> 00:37:05.770
the flies flying around and those smells of the woodshed,
768
00:37:05.770 --> 00:37:07.058
the lanolin and the shape.
769
00:37:07.058 --> 00:37:11.340
So I just think it's just such a beautiful image.
770
00:37:11.340 --> 00:37:12.929
I don't think everybody's on the same page
771
00:37:12.929 --> 00:37:16.099
when it comes that but I think everybody can agree
772
00:37:16.099 --> 00:37:18.891
that they've had a stranglehold
773
00:37:18.891 --> 00:37:21.802
on a part of Australian culture for a long time.
774
00:37:21.802 --> 00:37:24.108
Yeah and they kept working all during COVID.
775
00:37:24.108 --> 00:37:28.021
Those regional workers kept on working
776
00:37:28.021 --> 00:37:30.021
through the whole thing.
777
00:37:31.086 --> 00:37:34.619
And then the last one is this year's winner, isn't it?
778
00:37:34.619 --> 00:37:37.152
Joe Pratley's extraordinary portrait
779
00:37:37.152 --> 00:37:39.336
of a pharmacol drought story.
780
00:37:39.336 --> 00:37:42.746
Yeah. Again, it's wonderful.
781
00:37:42.746 --> 00:37:45.229
The similarities to the Alison Marion knees,
782
00:37:45.229 --> 00:37:48.146
even just this stock red landscape,
783
00:37:49.267 --> 00:37:52.517
a drought effected a farmer called David Kelly.
784
00:37:52.517 --> 00:37:56.108
And I think it's in Forbes, New South Wales.
785
00:37:56.108 --> 00:37:57.691
Yeah. And it just--
786
00:37:58.656 --> 00:38:00.368
It was interesting with this one because
787
00:38:00.368 --> 00:38:03.412
it's telling a regional story and a story of drought
788
00:38:03.412 --> 00:38:06.168
and very important stories that a lot of people related to,
789
00:38:06.168 --> 00:38:10.757
but so many people also related to that isolation
790
00:38:10.757 --> 00:38:14.924
and not like what you're facing is insurmountable.
791
00:38:15.765 --> 00:38:17.510
So he's walking into a dust storm.
792
00:38:17.510 --> 00:38:20.178
So there was all these really beautiful things
793
00:38:20.178 --> 00:38:21.851
that people drew from this photo.
794
00:38:21.851 --> 00:38:23.605
Like some people saw the hope
795
00:38:23.605 --> 00:38:26.350
with the sun shining from the left-hand
796
00:38:26.350 --> 00:38:29.433
or like he's walking into the future.
797
00:38:30.362 --> 00:38:32.275
So that's one of the beautiful things about photography,
798
00:38:32.275 --> 00:38:35.076
is everyone can look at this and tell their own story,
799
00:38:35.076 --> 00:38:36.752
but but it was an important one
800
00:38:36.752 --> 00:38:38.428
to tell about regional Australian farmers
801
00:38:38.428 --> 00:38:39.725
affected by drought.
802
00:38:39.725 --> 00:38:42.604
And his artist's statement,
803
00:38:42.604 --> 00:38:45.210
'Sometimes you wonder why you're still here',
804
00:38:45.210 --> 00:38:49.210
is just so simple, but so heartbreaking as well.
805
00:38:50.418 --> 00:38:52.086
It also raises an ongoing question
806
00:38:52.086 --> 00:38:54.002
that I'm always happy to have a conversation about.
807
00:38:54.002 --> 00:38:55.644
I don't know if we'll have time later on,
808
00:38:55.644 --> 00:38:58.033
Denise and Magda, but we'll see.
809
00:38:58.033 --> 00:39:01.812
Is, is it a portrait if you can't see someone's face?
810
00:39:01.812 --> 00:39:04.269
And with all of the masks that are being worn,
811
00:39:04.269 --> 00:39:08.344
that's very possibly a fair conversation for us to have.
812
00:39:08.344 --> 00:39:11.344
Denise, how about the UK experience?
813
00:39:13.127 --> 00:39:17.877
Those uniquely English moments that you captured in home.
814
00:39:21.005 --> 00:39:24.814
I mean, I think one of the themes that came across
815
00:39:24.814 --> 00:39:29.720
really strongly was the National Health Service, the NHS,
816
00:39:29.720 --> 00:39:32.803
which I think generally people who live in the UK
817
00:39:32.803 --> 00:39:35.222
are always very positive and grateful for,
818
00:39:35.222 --> 00:39:39.265
but I think during the pandemic that came
819
00:39:39.265 --> 00:39:42.098
just something that everyone felt very passionate about.
820
00:39:42.098 --> 00:39:45.565
People really wanted to kind of express their gratitude.
821
00:39:45.565 --> 00:39:50.232
And we have many, many entries depicting health workers,
822
00:39:51.291 --> 00:39:52.624
nurses, doctors.
823
00:39:53.534 --> 00:39:54.450
It was a really strong theme.
824
00:39:54.450 --> 00:39:58.067
So I think the next slide shows just one of those,
825
00:39:58.067 --> 00:40:01.820
which is a portrait of a nurse called Melanie
826
00:40:01.820 --> 00:40:05.528
by another nurse called Joanna Churchill.
827
00:40:05.528 --> 00:40:07.070
And it really became,
828
00:40:07.070 --> 00:40:10.248
I think quite iconic part of Hold Still.
829
00:40:10.248 --> 00:40:12.792
So earlier on in the slides I showed,
830
00:40:12.792 --> 00:40:15.749
we actually created a mural of this
831
00:40:15.749 --> 00:40:20.381
on a wall in the Northern quarter in Manchester
832
00:40:20.381 --> 00:40:24.759
where the the French golfers we created as a painting.
833
00:40:24.759 --> 00:40:27.303
And it's also on the cover of Hold Still book.
834
00:40:27.303 --> 00:40:29.143
And I think it really,
835
00:40:29.143 --> 00:40:30.927
I think it's very powerful because it's taken
836
00:40:30.927 --> 00:40:32.444
by a nurse of a nurse.
837
00:40:32.444 --> 00:40:35.819
So there's a very strong kind of personal connection
838
00:40:35.819 --> 00:40:36.729
and understanding.
839
00:40:36.729 --> 00:40:39.528
And Joanna, the photographer,
840
00:40:39.528 --> 00:40:41.612
when she talked about it talked that
841
00:40:41.612 --> 00:40:46.143
she wanted to kind of capture that anxiety really
842
00:40:46.143 --> 00:40:49.608
for the NHS workers and the patients,
843
00:40:49.608 --> 00:40:52.171
especially in those early days of the pandemic,
844
00:40:52.171 --> 00:40:55.526
when we didn't have a vaccine, we didn't know,
845
00:40:55.526 --> 00:40:57.404
there was a real worry in the UK
846
00:40:57.404 --> 00:40:59.696
that our hospitals would be overrun.
847
00:40:59.696 --> 00:41:03.035
It was a genuine concern and she captured that moment.
848
00:41:03.035 --> 00:41:06.286
And obviously it's just absolutely stunning photograph.
849
00:41:06.286 --> 00:41:08.784
The way the light is coming in on her.
850
00:41:08.784 --> 00:41:13.368
So there was lots of photographs of NHS workers,
851
00:41:13.368 --> 00:41:16.416
but there was also photographs that were expressing
852
00:41:16.416 --> 00:41:19.463
that gratitude from people in the UK.
853
00:41:19.463 --> 00:41:22.130
So the next one is a photograph,
854
00:41:23.221 --> 00:41:25.515
which has the rainbow symbol, which again,
855
00:41:25.515 --> 00:41:29.300
was such a theme in Hold Still because in the UK,
856
00:41:29.300 --> 00:41:31.760
people were putting rainbows everywhere.
857
00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:33.223
They were drawing them on the papers,
858
00:41:33.223 --> 00:41:34.940
they were putting them in their windows,
859
00:41:34.940 --> 00:41:36.782
they were wearing them on t-shirts.
860
00:41:36.782 --> 00:41:41.452
And it was a symbol of kind of hope, but also a way to say,
861
00:41:41.452 --> 00:41:43.838
thank you to the NHS and all the other key workers.
862
00:41:43.838 --> 00:41:48.208
And this is a fabulous photo of some children.
863
00:41:48.208 --> 00:41:49.501
And they're the children of key workers
864
00:41:49.501 --> 00:41:52.585
because at that period of locked down in the UK,
865
00:41:52.585 --> 00:41:56.456
the schools were closed apart from children of key workers
866
00:41:56.456 --> 00:41:58.831
'cause key workers had to continue to work.
867
00:41:58.831 --> 00:42:00.538
So these children of key workers
868
00:42:00.538 --> 00:42:02.390
created this amazing, thank you.
869
00:42:02.390 --> 00:42:05.476
This is from Sheringham Primary school in Norfolk.
870
00:42:05.476 --> 00:42:07.558
So a lot of these children,
871
00:42:07.558 --> 00:42:10.139
their parents were working in the NHS.
872
00:42:10.139 --> 00:42:12.566
And so obviously a very worrying time for the parents
873
00:42:12.566 --> 00:42:13.486
and the children,
874
00:42:13.486 --> 00:42:16.104
but this sort of joyous thing came out of it
875
00:42:16.104 --> 00:42:20.108
in this amazing, Thank You in their playground
876
00:42:20.108 --> 00:42:23.404
which that photographer Chris Taylor captured.
877
00:42:23.404 --> 00:42:26.249
And then the next slide shows another example
878
00:42:26.249 --> 00:42:27.966
of the saying, Thank You.
879
00:42:27.966 --> 00:42:32.716
So every Thursday evening at eight o'clock across the UK,
880
00:42:33.873 --> 00:42:35.400
people started clapping.
881
00:42:35.400 --> 00:42:37.998
So they stood outside the houses.
882
00:42:37.998 --> 00:42:39.742
They thought to their windows, they bind pans.
883
00:42:39.742 --> 00:42:42.823
There were people were playing instruments everywhere.
884
00:42:42.823 --> 00:42:45.490
And it was a really very moving,
885
00:42:47.332 --> 00:42:49.710
I think for everyone that there was this moment,
886
00:42:49.710 --> 00:42:51.577
kind of once a week, where people felt,
887
00:42:51.577 --> 00:42:53.704
even though they physically could come together,
888
00:42:53.704 --> 00:42:55.202
felt like they could come together
889
00:42:55.202 --> 00:42:58.359
and they could just say, Thank You.
890
00:42:58.359 --> 00:43:02.312
And this is very sweet because this is Iris and Lucas
891
00:43:02.312 --> 00:43:05.772
who were out there, the mother and father were working
892
00:43:05.772 --> 00:43:08.523
as frontline workers and it's
893
00:43:08.523 --> 00:43:11.287
Clapping for Mummy and Daddy, Our Heroes is the title,
894
00:43:11.287 --> 00:43:12.410
which I think says it all.
895
00:43:12.410 --> 00:43:17.410
Then again, you can see more rainbows on the pyjamas there.
896
00:43:17.798 --> 00:43:19.007
And then the next one,
897
00:43:19.007 --> 00:43:22.338
I think this is a very prestigious story.
898
00:43:22.338 --> 00:43:24.461
So this is Captain Tom Moore.
899
00:43:24.461 --> 00:43:27.878
So he completed 100 lengths of his garden
900
00:43:29.217 --> 00:43:33.537
before his 100th birthday to raise money for the NHS.
901
00:43:33.537 --> 00:43:35.457
And he started this off as quite a small thing,
902
00:43:35.457 --> 00:43:37.246
and then it just buildings
903
00:43:37.246 --> 00:43:41.570
and he ended up raising 33 million pounds for the NHS,
904
00:43:41.570 --> 00:43:42.403
which was incredible.
905
00:43:42.403 --> 00:43:46.736
But he, I think just became this hero for UK people.
906
00:43:49.028 --> 00:43:51.865
He was like a beacon of kind of hope,
907
00:43:51.865 --> 00:43:56.032
that this incredible man who had fought in the war
908
00:43:57.090 --> 00:44:00.590
who had medals, who was kind of a veteran,
909
00:44:02.042 --> 00:44:04.730
there was just such an outpouring of love for him.
910
00:44:04.730 --> 00:44:07.841
And then he was also given the honorary titled of Colonel,
911
00:44:07.841 --> 00:44:11.020
and he was awarded a Knighthood by the Queen,
912
00:44:11.020 --> 00:44:12.843
which was done in a special ceremony
913
00:44:12.843 --> 00:44:15.891
and in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
914
00:44:15.891 --> 00:44:19.971
Since then captain Tom Moore has passed away.
915
00:44:19.971 --> 00:44:21.644
And again, there was a great outpouring
916
00:44:21.644 --> 00:44:22.983
of sadness and grief,
917
00:44:22.983 --> 00:44:26.235
but also just this celebration of this amazing life.
918
00:44:26.235 --> 00:44:28.402
He'd been through so much.
919
00:44:29.403 --> 00:44:33.543
And then at his age of 99 to do that incredible thing
920
00:44:33.543 --> 00:44:34.707
and raise all of that money.
921
00:44:34.707 --> 00:44:36.999
So again, there were,
922
00:44:36.999 --> 00:44:39.380
all over the country people were creating portraits
923
00:44:39.380 --> 00:44:40.630
of officer Tom,
924
00:44:41.667 --> 00:44:45.265
but we have this lovely portrait of him doing his walk
925
00:44:45.265 --> 00:44:46.348
in our prize.
926
00:44:48.231 --> 00:44:50.403
So the next picture,
927
00:44:50.403 --> 00:44:54.999
I don't think the Mullets quintessentially Australian.
928
00:44:54.999 --> 00:44:59.091
I don't think this to be any more British picture.
929
00:44:59.091 --> 00:45:03.091
So during the lockdown period, it was the E-day.
930
00:45:03.987 --> 00:45:08.512
And so I think again, people saw this as an opportunity
931
00:45:08.512 --> 00:45:10.706
to have a bit of a celebration,
932
00:45:10.706 --> 00:45:12.718
even though people couldn't properly get together,
933
00:45:12.718 --> 00:45:15.606
they could go outside their houses.
934
00:45:15.606 --> 00:45:19.033
And again, it kind of captured a bit of that blitz spirit
935
00:45:19.033 --> 00:45:23.533
that we often talk about in the UK of stiff upper lip,
936
00:45:24.371 --> 00:45:27.589
kind of keep calm, carry on type feeling,
937
00:45:27.589 --> 00:45:29.245
which again is very British.
938
00:45:29.245 --> 00:45:30.625
And so all across the country,
939
00:45:30.625 --> 00:45:32.209
people had their bundling out.
940
00:45:32.209 --> 00:45:35.845
People were having cake and tea outside
941
00:45:35.845 --> 00:45:38.257
and talking to neighbours across the hedges.
942
00:45:38.257 --> 00:45:42.433
And this is Mick and Mavis who I just think are gorgeous.
943
00:45:42.433 --> 00:45:44.970
And the photographer said
944
00:45:44.970 --> 00:45:47.074
that they're really well known in their community.
945
00:45:47.074 --> 00:45:50.377
And he'd often seen them kind of sitting behind their hedge,
946
00:45:50.377 --> 00:45:54.095
watching the world go by and tending the garden.
947
00:45:54.095 --> 00:45:55.973
And the photographer said the hedge
948
00:45:55.973 --> 00:45:58.727
became the perfect metaphor for social distancing.
949
00:45:58.727 --> 00:46:00.314
And he said, they were very happy
950
00:46:00.314 --> 00:46:03.150
to have their portrait made on a warm English evening,
951
00:46:03.150 --> 00:46:04.528
celebrating the E-day.
952
00:46:04.528 --> 00:46:07.535
So I think this was a really lovely kind of--
953
00:46:07.535 --> 00:46:09.823
And again, there were lots of photos of the E-day.
954
00:46:09.823 --> 00:46:12.758
That was another theme that came through in the entries.
955
00:46:12.758 --> 00:46:14.884
'Cause I think it was just a lovely time
956
00:46:14.884 --> 00:46:16.766
for people to feel together
957
00:46:16.766 --> 00:46:19.856
when we were sort of apart physically.
958
00:46:19.856 --> 00:46:23.939
And then finally, another big thing that happened
959
00:46:25.113 --> 00:46:26.952
during the period of Hold Still.
960
00:46:26.952 --> 00:46:31.802
So Hold Still, the photographs between May and June in 2020
961
00:46:31.802 --> 00:46:36.350
in a six week period, where the Black Lives Matter protests
962
00:46:36.350 --> 00:46:38.895
where people did come together and this photograph
963
00:46:38.895 --> 00:46:40.895
was a protest in London.
964
00:46:41.977 --> 00:46:44.649
And again, there were lots of images of this.
965
00:46:44.649 --> 00:46:46.319
And so we felt it was really important
966
00:46:46.319 --> 00:46:49.736
that it was represented in the final 100.
967
00:46:51.530 --> 00:46:55.395
What I think is very powerful about this image is that--
968
00:46:55.395 --> 00:46:58.270
I mean, the photographer took the image of AKUAC.
969
00:46:58.270 --> 00:46:59.650
They didn't know each other,
970
00:46:59.650 --> 00:47:01.985
but actually since taking the image,
971
00:47:01.985 --> 00:47:04.237
they have become friends.
972
00:47:04.237 --> 00:47:06.858
But what the photographer said is if this pandemic
973
00:47:06.858 --> 00:47:09.610
has taught us anything, it must be that we all,
974
00:47:09.610 --> 00:47:13.288
all we really need is the wellbeing of our loved ones.
975
00:47:13.288 --> 00:47:15.286
Our human connection is the most important thing we have.
976
00:47:15.286 --> 00:47:19.651
I hope that we can keep this feeling going far beyond 2020.
977
00:47:19.651 --> 00:47:22.990
So I think, that says it all really.
978
00:47:22.990 --> 00:47:25.158
And I think this is an incredibly powerful image,
979
00:47:25.158 --> 00:47:29.768
but again, it's all about kind of that human connection.
980
00:47:29.768 --> 00:47:31.645
So yes, that's a little selection
981
00:47:31.645 --> 00:47:36.228
I think of some of the UK experience that came through.
982
00:47:38.650 --> 00:47:39.483
Thanks so much.
983
00:47:39.483 --> 00:47:42.363
That's a fantastic snapshot of each of the countries,
984
00:47:42.363 --> 00:47:45.199
unique experiences during this period.
985
00:47:45.199 --> 00:47:46.447
I know what we've got coming next,
986
00:47:46.447 --> 00:47:47.528
'cause I've seen the images,
987
00:47:47.528 --> 00:47:50.072
but I'd really like the panel to start delving in
988
00:47:50.072 --> 00:47:53.779
a little bit to some of the similarities between,
989
00:47:53.779 --> 00:47:56.690
the commonalities between perhaps visual elements
990
00:47:56.690 --> 00:47:59.573
that you discovered whilst we were planning this programme.
991
00:47:59.573 --> 00:48:01.242
Some of them are quite entertaining.
992
00:48:01.242 --> 00:48:02.663
Some of them are very striking.
993
00:48:02.663 --> 00:48:06.413
So take it away and we'll see what we've got.
994
00:48:06.413 --> 00:48:07.246
Thanks Gill.
995
00:48:07.246 --> 00:48:10.490
And I don't know how our tip crew will feel about this.
996
00:48:10.490 --> 00:48:12.616
Sorry, Hector and Robert,
997
00:48:12.616 --> 00:48:17.616
but I'm wondering if we just have all four of us on unmuted
998
00:48:17.742 --> 00:48:21.643
and we just sort of pitching on an as needed
999
00:48:21.643 --> 00:48:22.850
'cause I think we're taking turns.
1000
00:48:22.850 --> 00:48:25.643
But Magda, I had to pop this one in,
1001
00:48:25.643 --> 00:48:28.930
because a finalist in the Taylor Wessing this year
1002
00:48:28.930 --> 00:48:30.851
is also a finalist in Living Memory
1003
00:48:30.851 --> 00:48:33.604
and it's from the same series.
1004
00:48:33.604 --> 00:48:37.592
Yeah. No, it was so lovely to see that.
1005
00:48:37.592 --> 00:48:42.133
And obviously this idea of photographing behind glass,
1006
00:48:42.133 --> 00:48:44.391
kind of for photographers.
1007
00:48:44.391 --> 00:48:47.508
I mean, Lisa is again a professional photographer
1008
00:48:47.508 --> 00:48:50.175
so for her to continue her work,
1009
00:48:52.163 --> 00:48:56.080
there's something really beautiful about her concept
1010
00:48:56.080 --> 00:48:59.913
of looking at families, looking at motherhood.
1011
00:49:00.913 --> 00:49:05.345
And I think though that was a very, very prevalent
1012
00:49:05.345 --> 00:49:08.849
and strong theme for probably both of us
1013
00:49:08.849 --> 00:49:12.185
that photographers kind of making these portraits
1014
00:49:12.185 --> 00:49:15.185
and finding really sometimes--
1015
00:49:15.185 --> 00:49:18.473
Again, yeah, sometimes inspirational, sometimes hopeful,
1016
00:49:18.473 --> 00:49:22.056
sometimes lonely or sad kind of experiences
1017
00:49:23.104 --> 00:49:27.389
through these kinds of portraits behind glass.
1018
00:49:27.389 --> 00:49:30.228
And Lisa touched on a really interesting thing
1019
00:49:30.228 --> 00:49:31.766
in this series as well,
1020
00:49:31.766 --> 00:49:34.745
like particularly with mothers and it's that feeling
1021
00:49:34.745 --> 00:49:36.324
of you're in isolation,
1022
00:49:36.324 --> 00:49:39.697
but you're never alone if you're raising family
1023
00:49:39.697 --> 00:49:41.389
and children or there's five people
1024
00:49:41.389 --> 00:49:44.134
in a household flatmates, you're in ISO,
1025
00:49:44.134 --> 00:49:45.623
but you're never also aligned
1026
00:49:45.623 --> 00:49:47.737
or trapped in the same house together,
1027
00:49:47.737 --> 00:49:50.424
which is a common theme as well.
1028
00:49:50.424 --> 00:49:53.544
Yeah. And I feel like Lisa has really found
1029
00:49:53.544 --> 00:49:56.548
a very beautiful painterly approach
1030
00:49:56.548 --> 00:50:00.388
and her use of light and shadow is so stunning.
1031
00:50:00.388 --> 00:50:03.892
And different photographers who made photographs
1032
00:50:03.892 --> 00:50:06.568
Behind Glass did that in different ways.
1033
00:50:06.568 --> 00:50:11.568
So I felt like Lisa's work has a very kind of important
1034
00:50:11.616 --> 00:50:14.866
kind of artistic element to it as well.
1035
00:50:15.796 --> 00:50:17.343
But also as you say,
1036
00:50:17.343 --> 00:50:20.565
a very moving kind of exploration of connection
1037
00:50:20.565 --> 00:50:24.398
and motherhood and the experience of lockdown.
1038
00:50:25.567 --> 00:50:29.650
Yeah. Denise, what about garden shots?
1039
00:50:31.018 --> 00:50:34.360
Yeah. So if go to the next slide.
1040
00:50:34.360 --> 00:50:36.617
So this I have to say,
1041
00:50:36.617 --> 00:50:39.686
is really one of my favourites in Hold Still.
1042
00:50:39.686 --> 00:50:41.962
It's called, We're Really Lucky to Have a Garden.
1043
00:50:41.962 --> 00:50:46.962
And being a mum myself, you had to home school a child.
1044
00:50:46.973 --> 00:50:50.591
When I saw this, it just resonated so strongly.
1045
00:50:50.591 --> 00:50:54.136
Just the look on the mother's face of justice,
1046
00:50:54.136 --> 00:50:56.504
the end of the day she's had enough,
1047
00:50:56.504 --> 00:50:58.701
she's got a drink in her hand,
1048
00:50:58.701 --> 00:51:01.806
the little boy is kind of relieving himself
1049
00:51:01.806 --> 00:51:03.124
in the background.
1050
00:51:03.124 --> 00:51:06.783
I just think kind of sums up what a lot of people's lives
1051
00:51:06.783 --> 00:51:10.049
were like, that you were just getting through the day,
1052
00:51:10.049 --> 00:51:13.435
chaos all around you, trying to kind of--
1053
00:51:13.435 --> 00:51:17.105
And it sort of sums up some of the difficulties of that,
1054
00:51:17.105 --> 00:51:18.876
but also I think the joy of that.
1055
00:51:18.876 --> 00:51:21.022
There's a real joy in this photograph.
1056
00:51:21.022 --> 00:51:24.723
It's funny, it's amusing, but it's also kind of,
1057
00:51:24.723 --> 00:51:26.301
although it was hard,
1058
00:51:26.301 --> 00:51:28.570
everybody being stuck in the house together
1059
00:51:28.570 --> 00:51:32.146
it also was a wonderful thing that people got to spend time
1060
00:51:32.146 --> 00:51:33.917
with their family.
1061
00:51:33.917 --> 00:51:36.028
And I think this really gets across
1062
00:51:36.028 --> 00:51:41.028
that kind of mixed feeling about those experiences.
1063
00:51:41.044 --> 00:51:41.924
Yeah. And it's interesting
1064
00:51:41.924 --> 00:51:43.463
how the photographic technique
1065
00:51:43.463 --> 00:51:44.705
can speak to that a little bit.
1066
00:51:44.705 --> 00:51:46.134
I think the high saturation of colour
1067
00:51:46.134 --> 00:51:48.177
really gives us that sense of,
1068
00:51:48.177 --> 00:51:50.213
she's absolutely done, like she's had enough.
1069
00:51:50.213 --> 00:51:51.878
But there's still fun to be had
1070
00:51:51.878 --> 00:51:54.961
and it's still a very joyous backyard
1071
00:51:56.421 --> 00:51:59.278
regardless of the maybe exhaustion I think.
1072
00:51:59.278 --> 00:52:01.152
Yeah, absolutely.
1073
00:52:01.152 --> 00:52:03.184
The next photo I had to put in,
1074
00:52:03.184 --> 00:52:04.851
maybe because it had a little bit of something to do
1075
00:52:04.851 --> 00:52:07.551
with my own experience with our first lockdown.
1076
00:52:07.551 --> 00:52:09.977
This is called, I've Been Meaning To.
1077
00:52:09.977 --> 00:52:14.605
And it's all about going, while I'm stuck in my house,
1078
00:52:14.605 --> 00:52:15.993
I'm gonna do some spring cleaning,
1079
00:52:15.993 --> 00:52:18.114
I'm gonna get everything out
1080
00:52:18.114 --> 00:52:19.967
and then I'm just gonna go through it.
1081
00:52:19.967 --> 00:52:22.611
I might've had a go at doing with my wardrobe.
1082
00:52:22.611 --> 00:52:27.008
And yeah, it's kind of like things have to get worse
1083
00:52:27.008 --> 00:52:30.161
before they get better and have they gotten better.
1084
00:52:30.161 --> 00:52:32.000
So there's something about this particular
1085
00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:35.333
black and white portrait that I really like.
1086
00:52:35.333 --> 00:52:36.938
And it's that window Sandra into,
1087
00:52:36.938 --> 00:52:40.240
like, we're seeing now more than ever,
1088
00:52:40.240 --> 00:52:42.919
we're being invited into people in their environments,
1089
00:52:42.919 --> 00:52:45.338
like colleagues are Zooming from home
1090
00:52:45.338 --> 00:52:47.847
and you're meeting their children and their pets,
1091
00:52:47.847 --> 00:52:50.185
or like seeing their washing, hanging in the background
1092
00:52:50.185 --> 00:52:51.313
like I did the other day.
1093
00:52:51.313 --> 00:52:53.395
So it's that opening up with stuff
1094
00:52:53.395 --> 00:52:55.192
that's usually behind closed doors,
1095
00:52:55.192 --> 00:52:56.815
which was a universal theme
1096
00:52:56.815 --> 00:52:58.530
as well taking photographs of people
1097
00:52:58.530 --> 00:53:01.197
in their environments and homes.
1098
00:53:02.533 --> 00:53:06.950
Yeah. There were poignant moments as well.
1099
00:53:08.750 --> 00:53:10.998
Yeah. So this--
1100
00:53:10.998 --> 00:53:15.998
I mean, just as the most incredibly moving photograph.
1101
00:53:16.136 --> 00:53:19.574
So this was taken by the photographer,
1102
00:53:19.574 --> 00:53:22.897
Hayley Evans of her grandparents pattern, Pat and Ronwood,
1103
00:53:22.897 --> 00:53:25.150
who had been married for 71 years
1104
00:53:25.150 --> 00:53:27.983
and they've both contracted COVID.
1105
00:53:29.294 --> 00:53:32.150
And they were nursed separately,
1106
00:53:32.150 --> 00:53:33.434
but then they brought them together
1107
00:53:33.434 --> 00:53:37.116
so that they could spend their final days together.
1108
00:53:37.116 --> 00:53:41.126
And Pat passed away in her sleep lying next to Ron
1109
00:53:41.126 --> 00:53:42.830
and then he died five days later.
1110
00:53:42.830 --> 00:53:44.258
So every time I talk about it
1111
00:53:44.258 --> 00:53:46.985
so I get a bit different because I just think
1112
00:53:46.985 --> 00:53:48.318
it's incredible.
1113
00:53:49.706 --> 00:53:52.305
And what I think is so beautiful about it was
1114
00:53:52.305 --> 00:53:54.386
when the photographer talked about it.
1115
00:53:54.386 --> 00:53:58.190
She said they appreciated the tiny things
1116
00:53:58.190 --> 00:53:59.978
and took nothing for granted.
1117
00:53:59.978 --> 00:54:02.533
The ability to touch when they had so little left
1118
00:54:02.533 --> 00:54:05.665
was a gift and the only way to show their love and devotion.
1119
00:54:05.665 --> 00:54:08.712
I took this photo with gloved hands looking through a visor.
1120
00:54:08.712 --> 00:54:10.592
It gives me so much comfort to know
1121
00:54:10.592 --> 00:54:12.614
in a world where we have to distance ourselves
1122
00:54:12.614 --> 00:54:13.447
from each other,
1123
00:54:13.447 --> 00:54:14.822
that they had everything they wanted
1124
00:54:14.822 --> 00:54:16.298
in the palm of their hands.
1125
00:54:16.298 --> 00:54:19.477
I mean, I just don't want to say any more.
1126
00:54:19.477 --> 00:54:21.475
I mean, it's such a powerful photograph
1127
00:54:21.475 --> 00:54:24.074
and I think it just says it all.
1128
00:54:24.074 --> 00:54:25.574
And what's been wonderful since
1129
00:54:25.574 --> 00:54:28.393
is photograph has resonated so much.
1130
00:54:28.393 --> 00:54:31.958
Some artists made a version of it and it was sold
1131
00:54:31.958 --> 00:54:34.208
to raise money for the NHS.
1132
00:54:34.208 --> 00:54:36.929
It's gonna be made into a stained glass window
1133
00:54:36.929 --> 00:54:41.309
on the pier in Worthing where the family come from.
1134
00:54:41.309 --> 00:54:44.683
And the photographer has spoken how the experience
1135
00:54:44.683 --> 00:54:49.433
has helped her through her grief, sharing the experience.
1136
00:54:50.837 --> 00:54:53.290
And I have to say that this is incredible,
1137
00:54:53.290 --> 00:54:56.588
but there were a lot of images like this in Hold Still
1138
00:54:56.588 --> 00:54:59.755
and it really brought home, I suppose,
1139
00:55:02.375 --> 00:55:05.397
the real sadness and grief that the pandemic caused
1140
00:55:05.397 --> 00:55:07.869
and kind of how people got through that.
1141
00:55:07.869 --> 00:55:10.953
Again, through making these personal connections,
1142
00:55:10.953 --> 00:55:13.845
even if you couldn't physically touch.
1143
00:55:13.845 --> 00:55:17.102
She was able to be with them and it gave her comfort
1144
00:55:17.102 --> 00:55:19.200
that hey could hold hands.
1145
00:55:19.200 --> 00:55:21.862
So yeah, it's very powerful.
1146
00:55:21.862 --> 00:55:25.815
I managed to get through that without crying. So.
1147
00:55:25.815 --> 00:55:27.567
Yeah, but I mean, that's the thing, isn't it?
1148
00:55:27.567 --> 00:55:31.581
Some of them really do like you have that
1149
00:55:31.581 --> 00:55:34.463
sort of intimate sort of reaction to.
1150
00:55:34.463 --> 00:55:37.713
And Tara this one, Her whole world now.
1151
00:55:38.708 --> 00:55:41.115
This was an example, was it?
1152
00:55:41.115 --> 00:55:43.529
I think this is Alex's mother's, isn't it?
1153
00:55:43.529 --> 00:55:44.529
Yeah, that's right.
1154
00:55:44.529 --> 00:55:46.318
It's his mom, who's in her nineties.
1155
00:55:46.318 --> 00:55:48.785
So just demonstrating, this is her whole world
1156
00:55:48.785 --> 00:55:51.583
now that she's travelled the world
1157
00:55:51.583 --> 00:55:55.838
and her world is reduced to her home and her plants
1158
00:55:55.838 --> 00:55:57.548
and her veranda.
1159
00:55:57.548 --> 00:56:01.449
So again, that shrinking of environment
1160
00:56:01.449 --> 00:56:03.449
and gardens that's well.
1161
00:56:05.322 --> 00:56:08.245
I guess as well, with the last one and all of them, really,
1162
00:56:08.245 --> 00:56:12.744
it just touches on that generosity and the cathartic nature
1163
00:56:12.744 --> 00:56:15.595
of telling these like highly personal stories
1164
00:56:15.595 --> 00:56:19.845
and being heard and acknowledged can go a long way.
1165
00:56:23.719 --> 00:56:25.692
And then this one.
1166
00:56:25.692 --> 00:56:29.011
Again, it's such a beautiful photograph.
1167
00:56:29.011 --> 00:56:32.021
And I thought, we've talked--
1168
00:56:32.021 --> 00:56:33.475
In the images we just talked about,
1169
00:56:33.475 --> 00:56:35.731
there was the kind of chaos of homeschooling.
1170
00:56:35.731 --> 00:56:37.735
There was the real sadness and grief of people
1171
00:56:37.735 --> 00:56:40.332
who were going through illness,
1172
00:56:40.332 --> 00:56:42.547
but also for a lot of people,
1173
00:56:42.547 --> 00:56:47.547
it was just being stuck at home and unable to do the things
1174
00:56:47.731 --> 00:56:51.751
you normally would and having to watch the world go by
1175
00:56:51.751 --> 00:56:53.724
and not being part of the world
1176
00:56:53.724 --> 00:56:55.711
in the way that you could be.
1177
00:56:55.711 --> 00:56:59.767
And so I think this very beautiful, still photograph
1178
00:56:59.767 --> 00:57:01.651
kind of captures that experience,
1179
00:57:01.651 --> 00:57:04.411
which was the experience for a lot of people
1180
00:57:04.411 --> 00:57:08.079
that they just had to kind of stop and watch.
1181
00:57:08.079 --> 00:57:11.996
And I think it encapsulates that so beautifully
1182
00:57:14.750 --> 00:57:16.796
the look of lockdown,
1183
00:57:16.796 --> 00:57:19.757
just that you're just looking and waiting.
1184
00:57:19.757 --> 00:57:21.093
There's something about the drama
1185
00:57:21.093 --> 00:57:22.679
of this word too, isn't it?
1186
00:57:22.679 --> 00:57:25.269
With the use of the black and white medium,
1187
00:57:25.269 --> 00:57:28.436
it's got a timelessness to it as well.
1188
00:57:30.818 --> 00:57:33.772
I think we've got another few slides to go through.
1189
00:57:33.772 --> 00:57:35.187
And I also think that we're probably
1190
00:57:35.187 --> 00:57:37.400
desperately running out of time because
1191
00:57:37.400 --> 00:57:38.483
there's so much we can talk about.
1192
00:57:38.483 --> 00:57:40.286
But one thing that we did think
1193
00:57:40.286 --> 00:57:42.402
that would be a lovely thing to do is
1194
00:57:42.402 --> 00:57:43.654
we've done some pairings
1195
00:57:43.654 --> 00:57:46.876
between Living Memory and particularly Hold Still.
1196
00:57:46.876 --> 00:57:50.702
And so the next series of slides that we'll go through
1197
00:57:50.702 --> 00:57:54.590
in a relatively quick, but still considered manner.
1198
00:57:54.590 --> 00:57:57.509
On the left-hand side you'll see an image from
1199
00:57:57.509 --> 00:57:59.514
Living Memory and on the right-hand side,
1200
00:57:59.514 --> 00:58:01.393
you'll see an image from Hold Still.
1201
00:58:01.393 --> 00:58:04.623
So if we go to the first one, there we go.
1202
00:58:04.623 --> 00:58:05.545
And this was again,
1203
00:58:05.545 --> 00:58:08.675
looking at those commonalities across people's experiences
1204
00:58:08.675 --> 00:58:11.269
and seeing how photographers might've captured
1205
00:58:11.269 --> 00:58:13.769
very similar sort of feelings.
1206
00:58:15.732 --> 00:58:16.854
Anybody pitch in,
1207
00:58:16.854 --> 00:58:20.816
because I think that I've been talking canteen myself.
1208
00:58:20.816 --> 00:58:22.528
I mean, it's lovely to see the rainbow.
1209
00:58:22.528 --> 00:58:25.814
So it was wonderful in Hold Still to see how people
1210
00:58:25.814 --> 00:58:29.731
were kind of incorporated these symbols of hope
1211
00:58:31.535 --> 00:58:35.744
into the images and they were in a very beautiful way
1212
00:58:35.744 --> 00:58:40.712
with the light falling across this young child's face.
1213
00:58:40.712 --> 00:58:44.518
But I think to the idea of like the effect of lockdown
1214
00:58:44.518 --> 00:58:48.101
on children and was a very prevalent theme,
1215
00:58:49.649 --> 00:58:51.999
not only whole homeschooling,
1216
00:58:51.999 --> 00:58:55.166
but also this very kind of reflective,
1217
00:58:57.605 --> 00:59:01.853
I guess, insight into how kids who suddenly
1218
00:59:01.853 --> 00:59:05.762
had to find themselves inside would have understood
1219
00:59:05.762 --> 00:59:06.826
what was going on.
1220
00:59:06.826 --> 00:59:10.993
And I guess, as a kind of metaphor of young people
1221
00:59:11.844 --> 00:59:16.118
experiences into the future, I think was quite beautiful.
1222
00:59:16.118 --> 00:59:17.276
Yeah.
1223
00:59:17.276 --> 00:59:19.372
And I think from memory Louise said
1224
00:59:19.372 --> 00:59:23.168
in her artist's statement that Tiggy's a bit of a hand pool
1225
00:59:23.168 --> 00:59:25.559
and doesn't necessarily like staying still very often.
1226
00:59:25.559 --> 00:59:29.466
And so to capture this moment of Tiggy in their parents'
1227
00:59:29.466 --> 00:59:32.660
arms and stopping to look right down the camera
1228
00:59:32.660 --> 00:59:35.910
was a bit of a captured moment as well.
1229
00:59:37.088 --> 00:59:39.130
And it's the light before you know,
1230
00:59:39.130 --> 00:59:41.827
sometimes that light to me, that the shining of the light,
1231
00:59:41.827 --> 00:59:45.880
like it's a signaler of hope as well, to me, like yeah,
1232
00:59:45.880 --> 00:59:49.738
that beautiful use of light shining on the faces.
1233
00:59:49.738 --> 00:59:53.655
And you know young people are the future, so.
1234
00:59:54.639 --> 00:59:58.139
So those next two slide images,
1235
01:00:00.469 --> 01:00:04.094
I think that would have been another occurring thing
1236
01:00:04.094 --> 01:00:05.493
for you as well I think, Denise.
1237
01:00:05.493 --> 01:00:08.567
This was really the only way that our loved ones
1238
01:00:08.567 --> 01:00:11.710
could not quite connect for so long.
1239
01:00:11.710 --> 01:00:15.183
And in some cases it's still the only way.
1240
01:00:15.183 --> 01:00:16.529
Yeah. I think again,
1241
01:00:16.529 --> 01:00:18.962
there was so many images through windows
1242
01:00:18.962 --> 01:00:21.253
and images like this.
1243
01:00:21.253 --> 01:00:23.540
And then what really struck me was how similar
1244
01:00:23.540 --> 01:00:26.897
these images were on different continents,
1245
01:00:26.897 --> 01:00:29.564
but exactly the same experience.
1246
01:00:31.616 --> 01:00:35.624
And the photographer for the image from Hold Still
1247
01:00:35.624 --> 01:00:37.574
on the right side said,
1248
01:00:37.574 --> 01:00:39.609
separated by window, but connected by love,
1249
01:00:39.609 --> 01:00:40.701
which I thought was so lovely.
1250
01:00:40.701 --> 01:00:42.661
And I love the way that they,
1251
01:00:42.661 --> 01:00:46.419
that what their stance physically reflects each other.
1252
01:00:46.419 --> 01:00:49.047
You can see the family resemblance,
1253
01:00:49.047 --> 01:00:50.672
they they're echoing each other.
1254
01:00:50.672 --> 01:00:52.586
And even though they can't touch each other,
1255
01:00:52.586 --> 01:00:55.946
you can just feel kind of the love and warms.
1256
01:00:55.946 --> 01:01:00.092
And I think you can see that in both of those traits graphs.
1257
01:01:00.092 --> 01:01:04.274
But yeah, it was just striking how similar they were.
1258
01:01:04.274 --> 01:01:06.673
And there's that beautiful overlay of the images
1259
01:01:06.673 --> 01:01:07.766
as well with each other.
1260
01:01:07.766 --> 01:01:10.957
So they're reflective of one's overshadowing, both of them,
1261
01:01:10.957 --> 01:01:12.790
which was just lovely.
1262
01:01:14.055 --> 01:01:16.106
Now this--
1263
01:01:16.106 --> 01:01:18.194
Okay, Zoom parties.
1264
01:01:18.194 --> 01:01:21.427
Zoom parties have been a thing for nearly two years now
1265
01:01:21.427 --> 01:01:24.182
and we've both got them.
1266
01:01:24.182 --> 01:01:28.215
Tara, this is, Let them make cake by Zoom
1267
01:01:28.215 --> 01:01:31.034
that Sarah Vandermark shot.
1268
01:01:31.034 --> 01:01:32.534
It's got layers within layers
1269
01:01:32.534 --> 01:01:35.241
and I'm not talking about the cake over.
1270
01:01:35.241 --> 01:01:37.418
I know how incredible does that cake look.
1271
01:01:37.418 --> 01:01:39.554
But yeah, it's portraits within portraits
1272
01:01:39.554 --> 01:01:41.738
and it's one of those interesting photos
1273
01:01:41.738 --> 01:01:42.699
that the more you look at it,
1274
01:01:42.699 --> 01:01:45.420
the more you see this portrait on the wall behind.
1275
01:01:45.420 --> 01:01:47.674
There's the faces on the Zoom.
1276
01:01:47.674 --> 01:01:50.091
And I think, the loving gaze,
1277
01:01:51.188 --> 01:01:53.463
she says the loving gaze of cousins,
1278
01:01:53.463 --> 01:01:55.973
Sophie looking at the cake through the computer.
1279
01:01:55.973 --> 01:01:56.806
So yeah.
1280
01:01:57.785 --> 01:01:58.887
And it makes me hungry.
1281
01:01:58.887 --> 01:02:00.273
Look at that delicious cake.
1282
01:02:00.273 --> 01:02:02.208
How torture is to have your birthday on Zoom
1283
01:02:02.208 --> 01:02:04.765
and not be able to eat your own cake.
1284
01:02:04.765 --> 01:02:05.764
And this is one of the things
1285
01:02:05.764 --> 01:02:07.884
where you really wanna be able to get up and study it
1286
01:02:07.884 --> 01:02:12.884
because the Zoom tiles on the right-hand side of the monitor
1287
01:02:12.927 --> 01:02:16.010
has the artist, Sarah taking the shot
1288
01:02:17.144 --> 01:02:19.463
within the shot kind of thing.
1289
01:02:19.463 --> 01:02:21.463
It's a bit mad.
1290
01:02:28.360 --> 01:02:30.988
Again, these two, I think it just struck me
1291
01:02:30.988 --> 01:02:34.321
how similar they were in the composition
1292
01:02:36.706 --> 01:02:39.352
and the warm bedtime stories with grammar.
1293
01:02:39.352 --> 01:02:41.304
It's again, I think this is an experience
1294
01:02:41.304 --> 01:02:43.825
that so many people had of having to find new ways
1295
01:02:43.825 --> 01:02:45.997
to kind of communicate with family
1296
01:02:45.997 --> 01:02:48.663
and that feeling of missing family.
1297
01:02:48.663 --> 01:02:50.294
So this little four year old girl,
1298
01:02:50.294 --> 01:02:52.990
her grandma would read her bedtime stories
1299
01:02:52.990 --> 01:02:54.823
until she fell asleep.
1300
01:02:55.759 --> 01:02:58.892
And I just think it's incredible really
1301
01:02:58.892 --> 01:03:01.819
how resourceful everybody was in finding new ways
1302
01:03:01.819 --> 01:03:06.152
to do things and new ways to make those connections.
1303
01:03:07.951 --> 01:03:10.284
(murmuring)
1304
01:03:11.768 --> 01:03:15.823
I think we may have run out of time unfortunately.
1305
01:03:15.823 --> 01:03:16.988
Oh, look at me.
1306
01:03:16.988 --> 01:03:18.133
Oh, fussy figures.
1307
01:03:18.133 --> 01:03:18.966
Goodness.
1308
01:03:21.008 --> 01:03:24.290
I have so enjoyed listening to all of our panel talking
1309
01:03:24.290 --> 01:03:25.123
about these images.
1310
01:03:25.123 --> 01:03:27.602
And so I can tell actually I've been following
1311
01:03:27.602 --> 01:03:30.122
the chat conversation and the chat comments,
1312
01:03:30.122 --> 01:03:31.550
and there's been less questions,
1313
01:03:31.550 --> 01:03:35.738
but more actually people empathising, reminiscing,
1314
01:03:35.738 --> 01:03:37.657
really engaging with these portraits.
1315
01:03:37.657 --> 01:03:42.098
So clearly the three photographic portrait projects
1316
01:03:42.098 --> 01:03:44.162
that we've been discussing tonight have resonated
1317
01:03:44.162 --> 01:03:45.889
with a lot of people across the globe.
1318
01:03:45.889 --> 01:03:48.926
So I really appreciate all of our panellists
1319
01:03:48.926 --> 01:03:51.062
giving up their time today to talk to us
1320
01:03:51.062 --> 01:03:52.975
and take us through all those incredible shots.
1321
01:03:52.975 --> 01:03:54.038
Thank you so much.
1322
01:03:54.038 --> 01:03:56.905
I know that Denise and Magda have young ones
1323
01:03:56.905 --> 01:04:00.655
that they've had to get off to school.
1324
01:04:00.655 --> 01:04:03.541
Sandra has a hungry cat, no doubt, ready to go to bed.
1325
01:04:03.541 --> 01:04:07.360
So thank you to everybody who has joined us today.
1326
01:04:07.360 --> 01:04:09.706
I'd really, really like to thank the British Council as well
1327
01:04:09.706 --> 01:04:11.962
for all of their support.
1328
01:04:11.962 --> 01:04:13.897
Without their support we probably couldn't have managed
1329
01:04:13.897 --> 01:04:15.823
to get this together in the time that we have.
1330
01:04:15.823 --> 01:04:18.039
So thank you so much to the British Council.
1331
01:04:18.039 --> 01:04:19.832
And finally, thank you so much to the audience
1332
01:04:19.832 --> 01:04:23.352
that's joined in, live on Zoom, live on Facebook.
1333
01:04:23.352 --> 01:04:25.572
Thank you for supporting the arts.
1334
01:04:25.572 --> 01:04:27.542
Thank you for coming along to listen
1335
01:04:27.542 --> 01:04:30.131
to this conversation today.
1336
01:04:30.131 --> 01:04:32.005
Despite everything that we've been through,
1337
01:04:32.005 --> 01:04:33.218
it's been a really tough time,
1338
01:04:33.218 --> 01:04:36.217
but we really appreciate you coming out in such numbers
1339
01:04:36.217 --> 01:04:38.676
to listen to this conversation this evening.
1340
01:04:38.676 --> 01:04:39.638
So thank you so much.
1341
01:04:39.638 --> 01:04:41.091
Please continue to make art.
1342
01:04:41.091 --> 01:04:43.013
Please continue to take photographs.
1343
01:04:43.013 --> 01:04:46.269
Please continue to support your art institutions.
1344
01:04:46.269 --> 01:04:49.811
Yes, and look after each other in this time.
1345
01:04:49.811 --> 01:04:51.529
If anyone else would like to hear about
1346
01:04:51.529 --> 01:04:53.791
some of the other programmes that we have going on,
1347
01:04:53.791 --> 01:04:55.173
please jump on our websites.
1348
01:04:55.173 --> 01:04:58.339
Both of the MPG, London and the MPG in Australia,
1349
01:04:58.339 --> 01:04:59.593
portrait.gov.eu.
1350
01:04:59.593 --> 01:05:02.429
We have so many things and offerings that we have,
1351
01:05:02.429 --> 01:05:04.342
digital programmes that you can join
1352
01:05:04.342 --> 01:05:08.057
into another conversations like this one this evening.
1353
01:05:08.057 --> 01:05:10.798
Please follow us both on social media as well,
1354
01:05:10.798 --> 01:05:12.766
if it's working, wasn't up.
1355
01:05:12.766 --> 01:05:14.542
Because we were thinking that Facebook
1356
01:05:14.542 --> 01:05:16.323
may not have actually happened this evening
1357
01:05:16.323 --> 01:05:18.694
but thankfully we've managed to get out there live
1358
01:05:18.694 --> 01:05:21.202
to everybody as we would normally.
1359
01:05:21.202 --> 01:05:22.918
So thank you to everybody.
1360
01:05:22.918 --> 01:05:24.130
Stay safe.
1361
01:05:24.130 --> 01:05:25.220
Thank you for joining in.
1362
01:05:25.220 --> 01:05:28.056
And hopefully we'll see you online again sometime soon.
1363
01:05:28.056 --> 01:05:28.889
Thank you.