Road to Olympics

The National Portrait Gallery is still trying to drum up enthusiasm for the 2012 London Summer Olympiad with exhibitions in far flung corners of the UK (title link). Its latest crop of commissioned photos - Road to 2012: Aiming High - is a mixed bag of amateur snaps and fine portraits. Nadav Kander's portrait of Jodie Williams struck me as outstanding. I'm no fan of black-and-white photography, but Kander's approach is ideal. He ignored the sweaty, grimacing, muscular athlete and concentrated on the woman, producing a glamorous image reminiscent of a 1940's movie star. CLICK for a BBC slide show and note Anderson and Low's excellent group portrait of the ladies gymnastic team. The slender girl standing on the right is rising star Rebecca Tunney, who must be our youngest competitor at 15. CLICK to see her in action on the unequal bars. I might switch on the TV when she is performing.