Brenda Agard

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Brenda Patricia Agard (20 August 1961 – 29 October 2012) was a Black-British photographer, artist, poet and storyteller from London. She was most active in the 1980s, contributing to the UK Black Arts Movement and creating images that celebrated the resilience and dignity of Black women.

In 1985, she took part in Mirror Reflecting Darkly, a group show at the Brixton Art Gallery organized by Black women, and in The Thin Black Line at the Institute of Contemporary Art London, curated by Lubaina Himid. Agard was a member of The Black Photographers Group, which aimed to bring Black photography into mainstream British art, alongside artists like Eddie Chambers and David A. Bailey.

She helped found Polareyes: A Journal by and about Black Women Working in Photography, which began in 1987. Agard contributed an essay titled "Photography: An Extension of" and helped shape the publication’s focus. She was also a playwright and a poet; her writing, using Black English and Caribbean dialect, contributed to important Black feminist writing of the time. Four of her poems—"Nobody," "Business Partners," "Nothing Said," and "Black Truth"—appear in the anthology Watchers and Seekers: Creative Writing by Black Women.

In 2011, Tate Britain showcased a retrospective of Lubaina Himid’s 1980s shows, and Agard’s photography was included in two of the three shows highlighted in that exhibition. She lived in London and was partnered with Joseph Olubo. Brenda Agard passed away in London on 29 October 2012, aged 51.