Guy Tillim

The website African Success has described him as one of South Africa's "foremost photographers", whilst the Daily Maverick site has referred to him as "arguably SA's finest photographer" after David Goldblatt.

Guy Tillim studied at University of Cape Town and Michaelis School of Fine Art. The recorded working language is English. Work by Guy Tillim is recorded in the collections of Tate, National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Modern Art, Netherlands Photo Museum and National Museum of World Cultures.

• Name — Guy Tillim • Born — 1962 • Birthplace — Johannesburg • Citizenship — South Africa • Education — University of Cape Town • Occupation — Photographer

Tillim first became professionally involved in photography as a photojournalist in 1986. Until 1990, he worked with the Afrapix collective, a group of South African documentary photographers providing a unique conduit of photography to world media during apartheid, alongside other prominent figures in South African photography, including David Goldblatt, Steve Hilton-Barber, and Omar Badsha. During much of this time, he worked as a freelance photographer for both local and foreign media, including Reuters (1986 to 1988) and Agence France Press (1993 to 1994). His work during this period was hugely focused on the hostile political climate during Apartheid in South Africa. The photojournalists of the era, many of whom also worked with the Afrapix collective, were photographing often violent scenes of riots, war, and poverty on the black citizens of South Africa.

After the Afrapix collective dissolved in 1991 and apartheid was politically resolved in 1994, Tillim's work shifted to document the lasting effects of South Africa's almost 50 year-long war on its black citizens. Many of his most significant bodies of work carry this theme, such as Johannesburg (May, 2005) and Jo'burg Downtown, which include photographs of scenes and dwellers of the city. Of the latter, Johannesburg museum curator Okwui Enwezor said that "as a series, Jo'burg represents a practice of post-apartheid documentary photography that links contemporary South Africa to its own history." In other work, such as Things as They Seem (2004), he focuses on the architecture of the city, saying in an interview that "these photos were taken in places I knew, places where I had worked and covered news events." He stated that he "had always wanted to return and try to find it, try to describe it in some way." These works and others stood out in the global discussion of South African political climate. In more recent years, Tillim's work has shifted from the themes of his career from the 80s to the early 2000s. In 2014, he participated in a collaborative exhibit at the Museum für Moderne Kunst entitled The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists. In contrast to his earlier work, it reexamines Dante Alighieri's poem through art.

• 2006: SLUM: Art and life in the here and now of the civil age, Neue Galerie in Graz, Austria • 2006: São Paulo Art Biennial • 2007: Included in FotoGrafia, Rome's International Festival in the group exhibition Non Tutte Le Strade Portano a Roma, Ex Gil • 2007: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg • 2007: Congo Democratic, Extraspazio, Rome • 2007: Africa Remix, Johannesburg Art Gallery • 2007: Photography, Video, Mixed Media III, DaimlerChrysler Gallery, Berlin • 2012: Second Nature, Huis Marseille Museum for Photography, Amsterdam • 2014: The Divine Comedy. Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, curated by Simon Njami

Guy Tillim is recorded with the occupation photojournalist. Recorded with the occupation photographer. Recorded with the occupation journalist. Recorded with the occupation artist. Recorded as photographer, photojournalist, journalist and artist.