In the 1980s, Pollard began to attract attention for her photographic series, particularly those exploring the presence of black people in the English landscape, including "Pastoral Interlude" (1987–1988), "Seaside Series" (1989), "Wordsworth's Heritage" (1992) and "Self Evident" (1995). In these series, she worked with material that evoked notions of heritage or played upon nostalgic sentiments associated with the national landscape: the souvenir postcard, the poetry of William Wordsworth and hand-tinted photographs. She often placed text statements and quotations alongside her images to suggest a political framework for her photographic work. Developing such forms allowed Pollard to challenge traditional views of the English landscape as a zone exclusively owned by white people, and the related assumption that Black British people are only to be imagined in an urban setting.