Guy Tillim

Guy Tillim (born 1962) is a South African photographer known for his work focusing on troubled regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. His photographs and projects have been exhibited internationally and form the basis of several of Tillim's published books.

A member of the country's white minority, Tillim was born in Johannesburg in 1962.^[1] He first became professionally involved in photography as a photojournalist in 1986, working with the Afrapix collective, a group of South African documentary photographers providing a unique conduit of photography to world media during apartheid.^[1][2] 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).^[1]

The website African Success has described him as one of South Africa's "foremost photographers",^[2] whilst the Daily Maverick site has referred to him as "arguably SA's finest photographer" after David Goldblatt.^[1]

Publications

• Jo'burg. Johannesburg: STE Publishers, 2001. ISBN 978-2350460147. Photographs taken in and around Johannesburg.
• Departure. Cape Town and Johannesburg: Michael Stevenson Contemporary, 2003.
• Kunhinga Portraits. Cape Town and Johannesburg: Michael Stevenson Contemporary, 2003. Photographs taken in the town of Kunhinga, Bié Province, Angola, featuring portraits of displaced Angolans fleeing government forces in February 2002, during the final months of the Angolan Civil War.
• Leopold and Mobuto. Filigranes Editions, 2004. ISBN 978-2914381918.
• Petros Village. Rome: Punctum, 2006. Photographs documenting daily life over a two-week period in the village of Petros, central Malawi.
• Congo Democratic. Renate Wiehager; Cape Town and Johannesburg: Michael Stevenson; Rome: Galleria Extraspazio, 2006. A photojournal of the events surrounding the contested presidential election held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in July 2006, during which supporters of the incumbent Joseph Kabila clashed with those of Etinenne Tshisikedi.
• Avenue Patrice Lumumba. Prestel, 2008. ISBN 978-3791340661. Photographs taken in Mozambique, DR Congo, Madagascar, Angola and Benin during 2007/8. With introductions by both Tillim and Robert Gardner.
• Roma, Città di Mezzo. Rome: Punctum, 2009. ISBN 978-8895410296. Photographs taken in and around the capital city of Rome in Italy, originally commissioned for the international Roman photography festival, FotoGrafia.
• Second Nature. Prestel, 2012. ISBN 978-3791346908.
• O Futuro Certo. Göttingen: Steidl; The Walther Collection, 2015. ISBN 978-3-86930-649-0. Selections from Tillim’s various publications of the previous decade, including Mai Mai Militia in Training, Jo’burg, Avenue Patrice Lumumba, and Second Nature.^[3]
• Edit Beijing. Paris: Bessard, 2017. Photographs of people on the streets of Beijing made over a two-week period. Edition of 500 copies.

Awards

• 2002: Prix SCAM (Societe Civile des Auteurs Multimedia) Roger Pic.
• 2003: Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award, Japan).
• 2004: Daimler-Chrysler Award for South African photography.
• 2005: Leica Oskar Barnack Award for his Jo'burg series.
• Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.

Exhibitions

• 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 (16 March – 26 April).^{[4][n 1]}
• 2007: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
• 2007: Congo Democratic, Extraspazio, Rome.
• 2007: Africa Remix, which travels to the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
• 2007: Photography, Video, Mixed Media III at the DaimlerChrysler Gallery in Berlin.
• 2012: Second Nature, Huis Marseille Museum for Photography, Amsterdam (2 March – 3 June 2012).
• 2014: The Divine Comedy. Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists curated by Simon Njami.
• 2014: Conflict, Time, Photography, Tate Modern, London, 26 November 2014 – 15 March 2015.^[5]

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

• 18-minute audio interview with Guy Tillim