“There’s a lot of correspondence and communication between two human beings that goes on without one’s mouth moving,” he says in explaining his process. “And that’s in body language and just in brainwaves. I think we do really connect. And it’s often quite a heightened moment for the sitter because they have someone quite near them with a camera pointing at them. And I think in those heightened moments, you communicate even better. And I think something like that goes on, and I really trust it. That’s what I trust. And I think that’s the moment that a picture becomes a portrait.”

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The interview is part of the National Portrait Gallery/BT Road to 2012 Olympics-themed project, for which the gallery commissioned Nadav to shoot a series of portraits of Britain’s rising athletes. The first is of Jodie Williams. Here’s a screenshot of that photo as seen at the BBC‘s website, which is featuring all of the portraits in the Olympics project:

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Click to view Nadav Kander's portrait of Jodie Williams, part of the National Portrait Gallery's Olympics-themed commissions, at the BBC's website.

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To read more about Jodie and to see behind-the-scenes photos of the shoot, click here or on the image below.

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Click to view Anne Braybon's photos of Nadav's portrait session with Jodie Williams.

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Matt Lucas, 2009. Photo by Nadav Kander.

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The photograph is on view through January 8 at the National Portrait Gallery in an exhibition titled “Comedians: From the 1940s to Now,” which also features work by Annie Leibovitz, Karl J Kaul, Lewis Morley, and Bill Brandt. “This display gave us the opportunity to highlight a group of people that have always been held high in public affection, with their performances often creating national talking points,” Clare Freestone, the NPG’s associate curator of photographs, told The Guardian in an article about the show.

Click on the image below to view the Guardian‘s slideshow of portraits from the exhibition.

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Click image to view "Funny faces: comedians from the 40s to now" at the Guardian's website.

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The latest portrayal of Lily Allen, however, is a complete departure from her tabloid image: For a new ad campaign promoting London’s National Portrait Gallery, Nadav Kander made a striking portrait of the singer that has got the British press buzzing with surprise. As Marie Claire raved in an online post, “We’ve never seen Lily Allen looking quite like this before.”

For more on Allen and on Kander’s portrait, please visit the NPG’s website: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/news2/take-another-look/lily-allen.php