Ingrid Pollard

Ingrid Pollard

Ingrid Pollard (born 1953 in Georgetown, Guyana) is a British artist and photographer. Her work uses portraiture photography and traditional landscape imagery to explore social constructs such as Britishness or racial difference. Pollard is associated with Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers. She lives and works in London.

In the 1980s Pollard produced a series of photographs of black people in rural landscapes, entitled Pastoral Interludes. The works challenge the way that English culture places black people in cities.

Ingrid Pollard's work "Pastoral Interlude" is challenging the idea of cultural identity. It is unusual to see black people in rural settings in the English countryside. The usual imaginary shows black people in inner city photography, Pollard is challenging the viewer's perceptions.

"It is really a metaphor, a skeleton on which i explore ideas about place, space and where we all fit into the world scheme.....I see myself as a representative of a world majority culture. I may have a fixed idea of my place and identity but this changes depending on the context I am placed in by others. That flux is fascinating and a major concern in my work....." ( Ingrid Pollard, 2002, pg 197 art and photography)