Biography of Guy TILLIM

South Africa > Arts : Guy TILLIM



Biography :

Guy Tillim (Born in 1962) is a South African photographer.

Guy Tillim is one of South Africa's foremost contemporary photographers. Learning his trade as photojournalist nearly two decades ago, Tillim's oeuvre has proven to be far more than that of orthodox reportage. His photographs have become increasingly recontextualised as art object within the space of the artbook and gallery.

Guy Tillim is a South African photographer known for his black and white and later digital work, mainly of third world Africa and often of war- and trouble-stricken areas.
"Tillim was born in Johannesburg in 1962. He started photographing professionally in 1986 and joined Afrapix, a collective of South African photographers with whom he worked closely until 1990. His work as a freelance photographer in South Africa for the local and foreign media included positions with Reuters between 1986 and 1988, and with Agence France Presse in 1993 and 1994. Tillim has received many awards for his work including the Prix SCAM (Societe Civile des Auteurs Multimedia) Roger Pic in 2002, the Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award (Japan) in 2003, and the 2004 DaimlerChrysler Award for South African photography. In 2005 he won the Leica Oskar Barnack Award for his Jo'burg series. The prize was awarded at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, France, in July 2005. The Jo'burg series has been published in book form by Filigranes Editions and STE. His Petros Village series was exhibited at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome, as part of the Rome Photo Festival 2006

 Tillim has been awarded the first Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography by the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. In recent months, his work has been exhibited at the São Paulo Bienal; on SLUM: Art and life in the here and now of the civil age at the Neue Galerie in Graz; on Photography, Video, Mixed Media III at the DaimlerChrysler Gallery in Berlin; and on Africa Remix, which travels to the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2007. His work is included in Vitamin Ph (Phaidon, 2006). He currently has solo exhibitions at Extraspazio, Rome, until 21 April, and the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, until 10 February 2007. His work is also included on FotoGrafia - Rome's International Festival in the group exhibition Non Tutte Le Strade Portano a Roma, Ex Gil (16 March - 26 April)."


Exhibitions/Works

Congo Democratic (2006)
Petros Village, Malawi, 2006 (2 May - 3 June 2006)
Residents of Goma salute Laurent Kabila (1997; 2005 colour print)
Jo'burg series (2004)
Leopold and Mobutu (12 May - 19 June 2004)
Soldiers (17 June - 19 July 2003) including new images Portraits I - XVI
Kunhinga portraits (17 June - 19 July 2003) including new images #13-16
Departure (17 June - 19 July 2003)


Publications

Congo Democratic
Petros Village
Jo'burg
Leopold and Mobutu
Guy Tillim (DaimlerChrysler catalogue)
Kunhinga Portraits
Departure



Update this page