"Don Pollard doesn't make you look as good as you want to be, but he does make you look better than you are. In this world that's as good as it gets."
Mario M. Cuomo - Former Governor of New York
"Don Pollard has captured on film some of the most exciting and unforgettable moments in the recent history of The Metropolitan Museum of Art--from openings to major announcements, and visits by presidents, princesses and prelates. He has become our lens and our archive. Even at the Met, Don Pollard is a work of art".
Harold Holzer - Former Senior Vice President for External Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Bio
Don Pollard is a photographer who fits in everywhere. He's just as comfortable in black tie covering the Costume Institute Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as he is in hard hat venturing below the earth to cover the Sandhogs as they dig Water Tunnel #3.
Whatever the occasion or project, Don brings the same sensitivity. He can enter a crowded room and quickly deconstruct what is going on -- grasping what is key to the visual representation of the event. He is able to anticipate decisive moments without interfering in the action, and he gets what the client expects while being attuned to the unexpected.
Don is proficient in both film and digital: he can deliver a beautiful traditional silver print or email images from an event location. In addition to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Laborers Union, his clients include Time Warner, the New York Public Library, New York University, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Hospital for Special Surgery, the New-York Historical Society and Citymeals-on-Wheels.
Don has been a photographer since the ninth grade, when he built a basement darkroom. Since then he has worked as a photographer for a small Iowa newspaper, as a staff technician in the photolab at Newsweek magazine and as the official photographer to Governor Mario M. Cuomo. For the past 10 years, he has worked as a freelance photographer.
His photographs have been used by all major wire services and have appeared in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times Magazine, Business Week, GQ, The Daily News, The New York Post, Newsday, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and the Star. He has been on assignment numerous times for both the The New York Times and Yomiuri Shimbun (the world's largest newspaper).