Guy Tillim

Tillim first became professionally involved in photography as a photojournalist in 1986.{{Cite web|title=Guy Tillim {{!}} Peabody Museum|url=https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/node/408|access-date=2021-11-14|website=www.peabody.harvard.edu|archive-date=14 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114180848/https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/node/408|url-status=dead}} 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.{{Cite journal|last=HAYES|first=PATRICIA|date=2007|title=Power, Secrecy, Proximity: A Short History of South African Photography|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41056585|journal=Kronos|issue=33|pages=139–162|jstor=41056585 |issn=0259-0190}}{{Cite web|last=Mary|first=O'Donnell Hulme|title=Guy Tillim: Biography|url=https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/guy-tillim?all/all/all/all/0|website=International Center of Photography}} 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).{{Cite web|title=Agence VU - Guy Tillim|url=https://www.agencevu.com/photographers/photographer.php?id=137|access-date=2020-04-24|website=www.agencevu.com|archive-date=21 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421014911/https://www.agencevu.com/photographers/photographer.php?id=137|url-status=dead}}

His work during this period was hugely focused on the hostile political climate during Apartheid in South Africa.{{Cite journal|last=Gaule|first=Sally|title=Guy Tillim: Joburg downtown|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043389.2006.11877053|journal=De Arte|year=2006 |volume=41|issue=73 |pages=43–50|doi=10.1080/00043389.2006.11877053 |s2cid=194785870 |url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal|last=Zegeye|first=Abebe|date=2003-03-01|title=Amulets and Dreams: War Youth and Change in Africa|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1350463032000075326|journal=Social Identities|volume=9|issue=1|pages=37–50|doi=10.1080/1350463032000075326|s2cid=143484984 |issn=1350-4630|url-access=subscription}} 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.{{Cite web|last=Machen|first=Peter|date=2009-06-22|title=An Interview with Guy Tillim (2005)|url=https://americansuburbx.com/2009/06/interview-peter-machen-with-guy-tillim.html|access-date=2021-11-14|website=AMERICAN SUBURB X|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Afrapix Chronology 1981-1991 {{!}} South African History Online|url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/afrapix-chronology-1981-1991|access-date=2021-11-14|website=www.sahistory.org.za}}{{Cite web|title=Apartheid|url=https://www.history.com/topics/africa/apartheid|access-date=2021-11-14|website=HISTORY|language=en}} 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."{{Cite journal|last1=TILLIM|first1=GUY|last2=LEHAN|first2=JOANNA|title=Guy Tillim: Things as They Seem: Interview with Joanna Lehan |date=2008|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24473509|journal=Aperture|issue=193|pages=60–65|jstor=24473509 |issn=0003-6420}} 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.{{Cite web|last=Africa|first=Art South|title=The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists - Art Africa Magazine|url=https://artafricamagazine.org/the-divine-comedy-heaven-hell-purgatory-revisited-by-contemporary-african-artists/|access-date=2021-11-14|language=en-GB}} 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.

• 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.{{Cite web|url=https://steidl.de/Books/O-Futuro-Certo-0922263544.html|title=O Futuro Certo - Guy Tillim|website=Steidl Verlag|language=en|access-date=2018-01-03}}
• Edit Beijing. Paris: Bessard, 2017. Photographs of people on the streets of Beijing made over a two-week period. Edition of 500 copies.

• 2002: Prix SCAM (Societe Civile des Auteurs Multimedia) Roger Pic.{{Cite web|title=Michael Stevenson|url=http://archive.stevenson.info/exhibitions/departure/departure.htm|access-date=2021-11-14|website=archive.stevenson.info}}
• 2003: Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award, Japan.{{Cite web|title=Guy Tillim|url=https://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/laureats/guy-tillim/|access-date=2021-11-14|website=Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson}}
• 2004: Daimler-Chrysler Award for South African photography.{{Cite web|date=2014-02-14|title=Daimler Art Collection|url=https://art.daimler.com/en/daimler-award-for-south-african-photography-2004-2/|access-date=2021-11-14|website=Daimler Art Collection|language=en-US}}
• 2005: Leica Oskar Barnack Award for his Jo'burg series.{{Cite web|title=Guy Tillim, winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2005 - LOBA|url=https://www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/en/winners/winner-2005-guy-tillim.html|access-date=2021-11-14|website=Guy Tillim, winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2005 - LOBA|language=en}}
• Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.

• 2006: SLUM: Art and life in the here and now of the civil age, Neue Galerie in Graz, Austria{{Cite web|title=Michael Stevenson|url=http://archive.stevenson.info/exhibitions/season2006/tillim1.htm|access-date=2021-11-14|website=archive.stevenson.info}}
• 2006: São Paulo Art Biennial{{Cite web|title=Christian Rattemeyer on the 27th São Paulo Bienal|url=https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/200702/the-27th-sao-paulo-bienal-12390|access-date=2021-11-14|website=www.artforum.com|language=en-US}}
• 2007: Included in FotoGrafia, Rome's International Festival in the group exhibition Non Tutte Le Strade Portano a Roma, Ex Gil"[http://www.stevenson.info/artists/tillim.html Guy Tillim]", Michael Stevenson Gallery websiteLinks in this quotation have been added for this encyclopedia entry
• 2007: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg{{Cite web|title=Guy Tillim at The Goodman Gallery Johannesburg - Artmap.com|url=https://artmap.com/goodmangallery/exhibition/guy-tillim-2007?print=do|access-date=2021-11-14|website=artmap.com}}
• 2007: Congo Democratic, Extraspazio, Rome{{Cite web|last=Arnet Worldwide Corporation|title=Guy Tillim (South African, born 1962): Timeline|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/guy-tillim/biography|access-date=2021-11-14|website=Arnet|language=en}}
• 2007: Africa Remix, Johannesburg Art Gallery{{Cite web|title=Africa Remix|url=https://contemporaryand.com/magazines/africa-remix/|access-date=2021-11-14|website=Contemporary And|language=de}}
• 2007: Photography, Video, Mixed Media III, DaimlerChrysler Gallery, Berlin{{Cite web|date=2014-02-16|title=Daimler Art Collection|url=https://art.daimler.com/en/photography-video-mixed-media-iii-2/|access-date=2021-11-14|website=Daimler Art Collection|language=en-US}}
• 2012: Second Nature, Huis Marseille Museum for Photography, Amsterdam{{Cite web|title=STEVENSON {{!}} Guy Tillim|url=http://archive.stevenson.info/exhibitions/tillim/index_natureii.html|access-date=2021-11-14|website=archive.stevenson.info}}
• 2014: The Divine Comedy. Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, curated by Simon Njami

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite web |url=http://www.arteeast.org/pages/artenews/takemeonthiswalkagain/714/ |title=On Street Names and 'De Facto Monuments': Guy Tillim's Avenue Patrice Lumumba |first=Leora |last=Maltz-Leca |publisher=ArteEast |date=1 September 2011 |ref=Mal11 |access-date=23 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125110238/http://www.arteeast.org/pages/artenews/takemeonthiswalkagain/714 |archive-date=25 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite web |url=http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-05-18-floating-worlds-sa-photographer-relocates-the-african-modern |title=Floating worlds: SA photographer relocates the African modern |first=Richard |last=Poplak |publisher=Daily Maverick |date=18 May 2011 |ref=Pop11 }}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.africansuccess.org/visuFiche.php?id=201&lang=en |title=Biography of Guy Tillim |publisher=African Success |date=22 July 2007 |ref=Afr07 |access-date=23 January 2012 |archive-date=4 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004054028/http://www.africansuccess.org/visuFiche.php?id=201&lang=en |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.stevenson.info/artists/tillim.html |title=Stevenson: Guy Tillim |publisher=Stevenson Gallery |year=2011 |ref=Ste11 }}

{{refend}}

• [https://lensculture.com/articles/guy-tillim-documentary-in-a-new-context 18-minute audio interview with Guy Tillim]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tillim, Guy}}

Category:Michaelis School of Fine Art alumni

Category:South African photographers

Category:1962 births

Category:Living people

Category:South African photojournalists

Category:South African people of British descent

Category:20th-century South African photographers

Category:21st-century South African photographers