Guy Tillim was born in Johannesburg in 1962. After completing a B.Comm at the University of Cape Town in 1983, Tillim joined Afrapix, a collective of South African photographers, in 1986, and since then has seen his work widely published. His involvement with Afrapix continued until 1990, alongside positions with foreign media groups, such as Reuters (1986 - 88) and Agence France Presse (1993-94). He received the Mondi Award (South Africa) for photojournalism in 1998 for his essay of images entitled: Congo River - journey from Kinsangani to Kinshasa.
His work has been included in many exhibitions of South African art and photography, both at home and internationally. The South African National Gallery commissioned him to produce a portfolio of photographs on the Transkei region in 1990, and more recently in 2001. His work on Cuito, Angola, which debuted at the Gallery in April 2001, then traveled to Paris, and is described as "a backdrop to Guy Tillim's portrait of a city”¦”¦ whilst remaining in the realm of war torn cities, Tillim captures an everyday essence in this remarkable exhibition." by South Photo, a South African based agency to which Tillim contributes.
Along similar lines, Tillim has gone on to photograph child soldiers in Sierra Leone for South African History Online. The photographs, taken in July 2001, are both penetrating and intimate, and display Tillim's distinctive aesthetic. His images are often of harsh realities, but he is seldom invasive or confrontational in his approach. He tends to look at situations from a side view, as a passive but empathetic spectator, and seeks an unusual yet humane moment to provide a lingering disquiet to the image.
His assignment work takes him to diverse environments with the common theme of war, destruction, torment, hope, and beauty. Tillim has the capacity to access the remoteness of the human condition and continues to be a visual spokesperson for communities in his immediate surroundings and Cape Town home base. Tillim spends much of his time out of the country on foreign assignments and self motivated projects.
Book Covers
Solo exhibitions
2019
- Museum of the Revolution, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
- Museum of the Revolution, Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson, Paris, France
2018
- Jo'burg, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Germany
- Cagliari, Fondazione di Sardegna, Sardinia, Italy
2017
- O Futuro Certo, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Italy
- Museum of the Revolution, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
- Points of View: Joburg/Addis Ababa, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
2014
- Joburg: Points of view, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013
- Second Nature, Centre Photographique d'Ile-de-France, Paris, France
- Libreville, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Avenue Patrice Lumumba, CentroCentro, Palacio de Cibeles, Madrid, Spain; Rubin Center, University of Texas, El Paso, USA
2012
- Second Nature, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
- Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA Second Nature, Huis Marseille Museum of Photography, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Second Nature II, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
- Second Nature I, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, USA
2011
- Second Nature I, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
- Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Lannan Foundation Gallery, Sante Fe, New Mexico; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA; Contact Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada
2010
- Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Kunstverein Oldenburg ; Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
- Jo'burg, Centre du Patrimoine Arménien, Valence, France
2009
- Roma, città di mezzo, FotoGrafia, Rome, Italy
- Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Extracity, Antwerp, Belgium; FOAM, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Extraspazio, Rome, Italy; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France
2008
- Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
- Guy Tillim, Haunch of Venison, Zurich; Haus Für Kunst, Altdorf, Switzerland
2007
- Congo Democratic, Extraspazio, Rome, Italy; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006
- Petros Village, Museo di Roma, Trastevere, Italy; Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2005
- Jo'burg, Johannesburg Art Gallery (June); Durban Art Gallery, South Africa; Festival Artist, PhotoEspana, Madrid, Spain
- Leopold and Mobutu, Photographer's Gallery, London, UK
- Jo'burg, Rencontres Photographiques de Bamako, Mali
2004
- Jo'burg, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
- DaimlerChysler Award exhibition, Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart; DaimlerChrysler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
- Leopold and Mobutu, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
- Kunhinga Portraits, Sala Uno, Rome, Italy
2003
- Kunhinga Portraits, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
- Congo, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Fotofiesta Medellin, Colombia
- Departure, Higashikawa Photo Festival, Hokkaido, Japan; Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town; NSA Galley, Durban; PhotoZA, Johannesburg, South Africa
2002
- Kuito, Angola, Societe des Auteurs Multimedia, Paris, France
2001
- Kuito, Angola, South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa; Gallery Dupon, Paris, France
1996
- Kabul, Afghanistan, Durban Centre for Photography, Durban, South Africa
Selected group exhibitions
2018
- Recent Histories / Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from The Walther Collection, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Evoking Reality, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
- 9 More Weeks, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Both, and, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Ex Africa, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, Belo Horizonte, Brasil
- Extreme Territories, RAY Photography Triennial, Frankfurt Rhein-Main, Germany
- Ex Africa, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, São Paulo, Brasil
2017
- Ex Africa, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, Belo Horizonte, Brasil
- Afrique Capitales, La Villette, Paris, France
- The White Hunter. African Memories and Representations, FM Centre for Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy
- 10 Years Old 2007-2017: A History of the World Told Through the Images of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena Collection, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Foro Boario, Italy
- A Short History of South African Photography, Fotografia Europea 2017: Time maps. Memory, archives, future, ;Chiostri di San Pietro, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2016
- A Closer Look: Portraits from the Paul G Allen Family Collection, Pivot Art + Culture, Seattle, USA
- The Order of Things, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen, Germany
- Making Africa: A continent of contemporary design, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain; Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- (Infra) Structure, Lannan Foundation Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- A Verdant Summer, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York
2015
- Expanded Geographies, Lianzhou Foto Festival 2015, Guangdong, China
- Strange Worlds, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Foro Boario, Modena, Italy
- Africa: Architecture, culture and identity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
- Schema, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
- Making Africa: A continent of contemporary design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
- Life, Line, Knot: Object biographies from the Standard Bank African Art Collection, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
- After Eden/Après Eden – The Walther Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
- Spatial Stories: Topographies of change in Africa, Center for Visual Arts, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA
- Constructing Worlds: Photography and architecture in the modern age, Swedish Centre of Architecture and Design, Stockholm, Sweden; Fundacion ICO, Madrid, Spain
- The Divine Comedy: Heaven, purgatory and hell revisited by contemporary African artists, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, USA
2014
- Constructing Worlds: Photography and architecture in the modern age, Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, London
- FotoGrafia, Festival Internazionale di Roma, Italy
- Typology, Taxonomy and Seriality: Photography from The Walther Collection, Les Rencontres d'Arles, France
- Present Tense, Galeria Municipal Almeida Garrett, Porto, Portugal
- Asta di FOTOGRAFIA, Fotografia festival, MACRO Museum, Rome, Italy
- The Divine Comedy: Heaven, purgatory and hell revisited by contemporary African
- Artists, MMK (Museum für Moderne Kunst), Frankfurt, Germany; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, USA
- Room Service: On the hotel in the arts and artists in the hotel, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany
- Apartheid and After, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the bureaucracy of everyday life, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013
- Rencontres Picha, Lubumbashi Biennale, Democratic Republic of the Congo Das Fenster Im Blick, DZ Bank Art Foyer, Frankfurt, Germany
- Present Tense, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal; Fundação Calouste
- Gulbenkian - Délégation en France, Paris, France
- Absence, International Photo Festival of Rome, Macro Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy
- My Joburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany
- Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the bureaucracy of everyday life, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
- Present Tense, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
- Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African archive, The Walther Collection, Ulm, Germany
2012
- The Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the bureaucracy of everyday life, ICP, New York, USA
- The Great South, 1st Montevideo Biennial, Uruguay
- Prix Pictet Power, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, and other international venues Viewpoint, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Lost Places - Orte der Photographie, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
- La Triennale 2012 - Intense Proximity, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
2011
- Motherland, Roma Fotografia Festival, Italy
- The Eye is a Lonely Hunter: Images of humankind, 4th Mannheim Fotofestival, Germany
- Photography: New documentary forms, Tate Modern, London, UK
- Appropriated Landscapes, Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen, Germany
- XXI: Conflicts in a new century, Oak Cliff Cultural Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
- Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African photography, V&A Museum, London, UK
- Possible Cities: Africa in photography and video, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, Pennsylvania, USA
- Beguiling: The self and the subject, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
- Prix Pictet Growth, Passage de Retz, Paris, France
2010
- 21st Century: Art in the first decade, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia
- Breaking News: Contemporary photography from the Middle East and Africa, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio Provincia di Modena, Italy
- Africa: Objects and subjects, Palacio de Revillagigedo, Gijon; Canal de Isabel II, Madrid, Spain
- The Original Copy: Photography of sculpture, 1839 to today, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
- Events of the Self: Portraiture and social identity, Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen, Southern Germany
- 1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2009
- Welt - Bilder 3, Helmhaus Zürich, Switzerland
- Great Expectations: Contemporary photography looks at today's Bitter Years, Casino Luxembourg, Forum of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg
- ImageSingulières festival, Sète, France
- The Tropics: Views from the middle of the globe, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
- Face of Our Time, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
- Mythologies, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
2008
- Short Stories in Contemporary Photography, Museum of Design, Zurich
- Peripheral Vision and Collective Body, Museion, Bolzano, Italy
- Home Lands - Land Marks, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
- Contemporary Photography from South Africa - Part 2, Hereford Photography Festival, UK
- Cities in Crisis: Photographs of the SA urban landscape, FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg
- Biennale Cuvée, OK Center for Contemporary Art in Linz, Austria
- Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Massachusetts, USA
2007
- Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany
- Children in Conflict, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK
- Ostropicos, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
- Global Cities, Tate Modern, London
- Africa Remix, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg
- Contemporary Art Photography from South Africa 2007: Reality check, Museum Bochum, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz and other venues in Germany
- Photography, Video, Mixed Media III, DaimlerChrysler Gallery, Berlin, Germany
- Non Tutte Le Strade Portano a Roma, FotoGrafia, International Festival of Rome, Italy
2006
- Photography, Video, Mixed Media III, DaimlerChrysler Gallery, Berlin, Germany
- SLUM: Art and life in the here and now of the civil age, Neue Galerie, Graz São Paulo Biennale
- Thy Brother's Keeper, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan
- Snap Judgments: New positions in contemporary African photography, International Center of Photography, New York, USA
2005
- Lasting Foundations, Museum for African Art, New York, USA
- Unsettled, National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark
2004
- Africa Remix, museum kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Pompidou Centre, Paris, France; Mori Art Museum Tokyo, Japan; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2004-7)
- A Decade of Democracy: South African art from the permanent collection, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
- Festival Internazionale di Roma, Rome, Italy
2003
- Unveiled, OMC Gallery for Contemporary Art, Düsseldorf, Germany
1998
- eyeAfrica: African Photography 1840-1998, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa
1996
- Colors: Art from South Africa, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Awards
2017
- HCB Award, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
2015
- Special Jury Prize, Lianzhou Foto Festival, China
2012
- Shortlist, Prix Pictet Power (for Congo Democratic)
2011
- Shortlist, Prix Pictet Growth (for Petros Village)
2006
- Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, USA
2005
- Leica Oskar Barnack Award (for the Jo'burg series), Germany
2004
- DaimlerChrysler Award for Photography, South Africa
2003
- Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award, Japan
2002
- Prix SCAM (Société Civile des Auteurs Multimedia) Roger Pic, France (for Kuito, Angola)
2001
- Finalist, Prix Care for Humanitarian Reportage, France
1999
- Mondi Award for photojournalism, South Africa (report on the Himba people of Northern Namibia)
1998
- Mondi Award for photojournalism, South Africa (Congo River: journey from Kisangani to Kinshasa)
Collections
- Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris, France
- DZ Bank Art Collection, Frankfurt, Germany
- Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France
- Fondation Leschot, Freiburg, Switzerland
- Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal
- Fundació Foto Colectania, Barcelona, Spain
- Gordon Schachat Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, USA
- Huis Marseille Fotomuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- International Centre of Photography, New York, USA
- Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, USA
- Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
- Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, USA
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
- National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
- Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
- San Francisco Museum of Modern art, San Francisco, USA
- Sasol Corporate Art Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa
- South African National Gallery – Iziko Museums, Cape Town, South Africa
- South African Reserve Bank Art Collection, South Africa
- Standard Bank African Art Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- TATE Modern, London, United Kingdom
- The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany and New York, USA
- Publications featuring Guy Tillim's work
