Best portraits of 2012 – in pictures

5 June: Dizzee Rascal, rapper. Dizzee was in a good mood when he met the Guardian, having taken most of the previous year off. The following month, he starred in the opening ceremony of the Olympics, performing his signature hit Bonkers Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

16 February: actor Lisa Dwan was about to play a mother who kills her children in Beside the Sea: ‘I read it in one sitting,' Dwan said of the novel it was based on, by Veronique Olmi. 'It unlocks you from the inside’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

24 January: Roy Baumeister, professor of psychology at Florida State University, had written a book on willpower. He told the Guardian's Jon Henley that willpower is like a muscle, which needs developing – but gets tired with overuse Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

6 October: when the Guardian caught up with Taylor Swift, she was shortly to enjoy a monster hit with We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, about a relationship she'd had. 'I couldn't understand why he would never say anything nice about the songs I wrote or the music I made,' she told Alex Macpherson Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian

8 November: Wilfried Zaha, Crystal Palace and England under-21 footballer, at the Crystal Palace training ground in Beckenham, Kent. He told the Guardian about an altercation with Southampton's Guly do Prado. 'I went past him and he took me out, grabbed me and said: "Respect me." I'm thinking I don't know you, I don't care who you are, so why should I?' Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

28 August: Mercury prize winners Alt-J in London barbers Legends – Gus Unger-Hamilton, Joe Newman, Gwil Sainsbury and Thom Green. 'What's Alexis Petridis like?' Unger-Hamilton asked our interviewer. 'We've got a lot in common. We both shop at Folk!' Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

28 November: Benjamin Zephaniah, writer and dub poet, in Lincolnshire. This year he wrote about the seeming inability of the police to be charged for using racist language after the acquittal of PC Alex MacFarlane Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

29 October: Judit Polgar, Hungarian chess grandmaster, and the best female chess player of all time. She told Stephen Moss that when male chess players tell her she is a one-off, she replies: 'Yes, I am so far exceptional, but I don't think I will be the only one in the upcoming decades' Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

17 February: artist Jeremy Deller at the Hayward Gallery in London. His show, Joy in People, was a retrospective of projects ranging from a re-enactment of the Battle of Orgreave in the miners' strike to a recreation of his favourite cafe. 'I'm more interested in ideas than money,' he told the Guardian Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

28 August: Celia Paul, painter, one-time lover of Lucian Freud and mother of their son Frank, photographed next to a self-portrait called Painter and Model. She told the Guardian: 'We had a spiritual bond, and I think he wanted me to know I meant a great deal to him. He certainly respected my work. But he wasn't faithful to me, and I knew that' Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

3 October: Tony Conigliaro, mixologist and bar owner, who often draws cocktails before he devises the recipe. 'To me different spirits have different shapes … gin looks like a sphere but with all these bits coming out, like a kind of Rubik's Cube' Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian

30 January: Mark Cavendish, London 2012 Olympic Team GB and Team Sky cyclist. The Manx sprint cyclist had a difficult year. Despite helping his Sky teammate Bradley Wiggins to victory in the Tour de France (and winning the final stage himself), Cavendish was thwarted in his attempts to win the road race gold at the Olympics, finishing up in a disappointing 29th place Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

18 July: The Vaccines prepare to launch their second album The Vaccines Come of Age. They told the Guardian they were happy with no longer being toast of the hipsters. 'It feels a lot better playing to a room full of people who are happy to throw their beers up in the air than it does to people standing with their arms folded, tapping their feet' Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

12 October: Jo Milligan, who is homeless, at Thames Reach's Graham House hostel in Vauxhall, London. He was interviewed by the Guardian after a charity warned that some homeless people were at risk of drinking themselves to death on super-strength alcohol Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

16 January: Speech Debelle, musician and 2009 Mercury prize winner, who told the Guardian that she knew all along that she would win the gong. 'I'm heavily influenced by my Jamaican heritage, and Jamaica is not a polite country,' she added Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

13 September: Salman Rushdie, novelist, who published a memoir taking in his 13 years in hiding. 'Well, the book is still in print and the author wasn't suppressed so it was a victory in that sense,' he told Stuart Jeffries. 'But the fear and menaces have grown' Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

3 February: London 2012 Olympic track cyclist Laura Trott at the Manchester velodrome. This year she won a haul of gold medals including two at the Olympics. She told the Guardian: 'I'm quite a lazy person, to be honest' Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

10 May: Vicky McClure, actor, starred in Line of Duty on TV and Anna Karenina on film. She told us: 'I don't need a trailer, I don't need to have the luxuries of what is Hollywood, which is why I'm probably not so desperate to get there' Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian

5 March: Ben Bridgewater, heart surgeon at Wythenshawe hospital, Manchester, was one of 100 interviews the Guardian conducted with NHS workers. He told Simon Hattenstone: 'People are starting from the position that the NHS is broken – and it's not' Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

25 July: Kayvan Novak, actor and comedian, of hidden camera show Facejacker. He told the Observer: 'Quentin Crisp says that the difference is that the British want you to fail because they're afraid you'll leave them behind. The Americans want you to succeed in case you take them with you' Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

11 July: London 2012 Paralympic sitting volleyball player Martine Wright. She lost both her legs to the Aldgate tube train bomb on 7/7 and this year made her debut in the British women's sitting volleyball team in the London Paralympics
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

10 May: as it was the Jubilee, Margaret Southcoat had a busy year in 2012. Impersonating the Queen, she said, 'has given me something to get up for in the mornings – a reason to enjoy my retirement' Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

11 January: Livie Rose told the Guardian how, through filming makeup tutorials for YouTube, she earns between £50 and several thousand pounds each month Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian