Published to accompany an exhibition at MK Gallery, this is the first major survey of the work of contemporary British artist and photographer Ingrid Pollard, nominated for the Turner Prize 2022.

This publication provides the first overview of works by British artist and photographer Ingrid Pollard. Pollard is renowned for using portrait and landscape photography to question our relationship with the natural world and to interrogate social constructs such as Britishness, race, sexuality and identity. Working across a variety of techniques from photography, printmaking, drawing and installation to artists' books, video and audio, Pollard combines meticulous research and experimental processes to make art that is at once deeply personal and socially resonant.

'Ingrid Pollard's practice has long been focused on the human body, astro-physics and geology, and in particular geology in the formation of the stars and planets. The title of this publication - Carbon Slowly Turning - invites us to reflect on geological time in relation to human time. On the one hand, the millennia in which carbon, rock and other natural materials are made, and on the other, the brevity of human existence by comparison and the affecting nature of geology on the human form. A number of Pollard's works reflect on the cyclical nature of history and human experience, where everything is subject to change, sometimes over hundreds or thousands of years, at other times in the blink of an eye.'
- Gilane Tawadros, Curator, writer and CEO, DACS

'Ingrid Pollard's work slows down our looking to create space to consider alternative formations of history and landscape. Across four decades she has re-scripted Britishness, looking back in order that we might move forward differently. This is a profound and timely exploration of this vital British artist.'
- Maria Balshaw, Director, Tate

This book accompanies an exhibition at MK Gallery and Turner Contemporary, curated by Gilane Tawadros, with the artist, and supported by the Freelands Award 2020. Edited by Fay Blanchard and Anthony Spira. Essays by Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Cheryl Finley, Paul Gilroy, Mason Leaver-Yap and Gilane Tawadros.

Ingrid Pollard (born Georgetown, Guyana) is one of the leading figures in contemporary British art. She is an accomplished photographer whose 40-year career has queried how images are staged and constructed. Working in portraiture, often with a range of performers as well as her own archives, Pollard explores how the body is interpreted, through characteristics of gender, sexuality, race, class, beauty and through photographic histories and theories. Pollard questions the long-held tradition of the English, romantic idyll within rural geographies, as she works to uncover stories and histories that are hidden in plain sight, within the landscape. In 2019, she received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, in 2020 the Freelands Award and has been nominated for the Turner Prize 2022. Pollard's work is held in public collections including the Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She lives and works in Northumberland, UK.

Fay Blanchard is Head of Exhibitions at MK Gallery. Prior to joining the gallery she worked as Visual Arts Curator with the British Council, producing exhibitions of artists including Michael Landy, Grayson Perry and Paula Rego.

Anthony Spira is Director of MK Gallery, having been curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, London and the Jeu de Paume, Paris. He has produced many publications on artists including Ellen Altfest, Hans Bellmer, Peter Dreher and George Stubbs.

With contributions by Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Cheryl Finley, Paul Gilroy, Mason Leaver-Yap and Gilane Tawadros.