Guy Tillim was born in Johannesburg in 1962.
He started photographing professionally in 1986, working with Afrapix collective until 1990.
His work as a freelance photographer include positions at Reuter and Agence France Press.
Guy Tillim lives and works in Vermaaklikheid in the Western Cape, South Africa
.

Grants and Awards

  • 2017

    HCB Award, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France

  • 2006

    Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography, awarded by the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, MA

  • 2005

    Leica Oskar Barnack Award (for the Jo’burg series), Germany

  • 2004

    Daimler Chrysler 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

    Prix Care for Humanitarian Reportage, Finalist, France

  • 1999

    Mondi Award (S.A.) for photojournalism (report on the Himba people of Northern Namibia)

Solo Shows

  • 2022

    Berlin, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany

  • 2019

    Museum of the Revolution, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France
    Museum of the Revolution, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany

  • 2018

    Jo´burg, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Germany
    Caligari, Fondazione di Sardegna, Italy

  • 2017

    O Futuro Certo, Museo d´Arte Contemporanea Rome, Italy
    Museum of the Revolution, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    Edit Beijing, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa

  • 2015

    Points Of View, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany

  • 2014

    Jo’burg: Points Of View, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
    Jo’burg, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany

  • 2013

    Second Nature, Centre photographique d’Ile-de-France, Pontault Combault, France
    Libreville, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX

  • 2012

    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
    Second Nature, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
    Second Nature, Huis Marseille stichting voor fotografie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Second Nature II, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    Second Nature, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA
    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR

  • 2011

    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, CAC – Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
    Second Nature, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    Avenue Patrice Lumumba Exhibit, Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM
    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, MoCP – The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL

  • 2010

    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg, Germany
    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany

  • 2009

    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Extra City – Kunsthal Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Foam Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Extraspazio, Rome, Italy
    Avenida Patrice Lumumba, Museu Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, Portugal
    Guy Tillim, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France

  • 2008

    Guy Tillim, Haunch of Venison, Zurich, Switzerland
    Guy Tillim, Haus Für Kunst, Altdorf, Switzerland
    Avenue Patrice Lumumba, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa

  • 2007

    Congo Democratic, Extraspazio, Rome, Italy
    Congo Democratic, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

  • 2006

    Petros Village, Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Italy
    Petros Village, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    Guy Tillim, Leica Galerie Frankfurt, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

  • 2005

    Leopold and Mobutu, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, Great Britain
    Jo’burg, Rencontres Photographiques de Bamako, Mali
    Jo’burg, Festival Artist, PhotoEspana, Madrid, Spain
    Jo’burg, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
    Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa

  • 2004

    Jo’burg, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
    DaimlerChysler Award exhibition, Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany, and 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 Photographic Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
    Congo, Fotofiesta Medellin, Colombia
    Departure, Higashikawa Photo Festival, Hokkaido, Japan
    Departure, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
    Departure, NSA Galley, Durban, South Africa
    Departure, PhotoZA, Johannesburg, South Africa

  • 2002

    Kuito, Angola, Societe des Auteurs Multimedia, Paris, France

  • 2001

    Kuito, Angola, South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
    Kuito, Angola, Gallery Dupon, Paris, France

  • 1996

    Kabul, Afghanistan, Durban Centre for Photography, Durban, South Africa

Group Shows

  • 2022

    Concretos, TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
    Shifting Dialogues Photography from the Walther Collection, K21, Dusseldorf, Germany

  • 2021

    Friendship. Nature. Culture – 44 years Daimler Art Collection, Mercedes Benz Art Collection, Stuttgart, Germany
    Transport commun, Société Genérale Art Collection, Paris, France
    African Adventure – Künstlerische Positionen aus und über Afrika, Kunstverein Eislingen, Eislingen, Germany

  • 2020

    Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Perez Art Museum, Miami
    Global(e) Resistance – Pour une histoire engagée de la collection contemporain de Jonathas Andrade à Billie Zangewa, Centre Pompidou, Paris
    Des marches, démarches, Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France

  • 2019

    Crossing Nights: Regional Identities x Global Context,Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, USA

  • 2018

    Evoking Reality. Konstitution von Wirklichkeit in Fotografie und Videokunst, Daimler Contemporary Berlin
    Recent Histories, Huis Marseille Museum for Photography Amsterdam
    Structures of Identity – Photography from the Walther Collection,FOAM Amsterdam
    Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Albuquerque Museum
    Extreme Territories, RAY Photography Triennale, Frankfurt a. Main, Germany

  • 2017

    10 YEARS OLD // 2007-2017: a history of the world told through the images of the Fondazione Cassa di risparmio di Modena Collection, Modena, Foro Boario
    Il Cacciatore Bianco / The White Hunter: African memories and representations, FM Centro per l´Arte Contemporanea – Milan
    Afrique Capitales, La Villette, Paris, France
    A Short History of South African Photography, Fotografia Europea 2017: Time maps. Memory, archives, future, Chiostri di San Pietro, Reggio Emilia, Italy

  • 2016

    FOTOGRAFIA – Festival Internazionale di Roma, Rome Italy
    On the Subject of the Ready-made, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
    (Infra) Structure: Complex, Below And Further On, Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM
    A Verdant Summer, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York City, NY
    Rome Commission, Instituto Italiano di Cultura di Londra, London

  • 2015

    Schema, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    Making Africa – Un Continente De Diseño Contemporáneo, Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao, Spain
    After Eden – Photography from The Walther Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
    Strange Worlds – Works from the collection, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena, Italy
    Construyendo mundos – Fotografía y arquitectura en la era moderna, Museo Colecciones ICO, Madrid, Spain
    The Order of Things – Photography from The Walther Collection, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany
    The Divine Comedy – Heaven, Purgatory And Hell Revisited By Contemporary African Artists, National Museum of African Art – Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC
    Making Africa – A Continent of Contemporary Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
    Spatial Stories, Center for Visual Art (CVA), Denver, CO

  • 2014

    Fotografie: International – Video, Mixed Media, Daimler Art Collection, Stuttgart, Germany
    Open Museum Open City – MAXXI, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy
    The Divine Comedy – Heaven, Purgatory And Hell Revisited By Contemporary African Artists, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
    Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age, Barbican Art Gallery, London, Great Britain
    How Far How Near, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Perspectives 1, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    Destini/Storie/Vite. Fotografie dalla Collezione Fondazione cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Centro de Arte Moderna e Contemporanea della Spezia (CAMeC), La Spezia Italy
    Pre­sent Tense, Centro de Arte Moderna – CAM – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
    Room Service – Vom Hotel in der Kunst und Künstlern im Hotel, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany
    Die Göttliche Komödie. Himmel, Hölle, Fegefeuer aus Sicht afrikanischer Gegenwartskünstler, Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt/Main, Germany
    Apartheid & After, Huis Marseille stichting voor fotografie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Prix Pictet: Power, The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
    Dark Blue – The Water as Protagonist, Haggerty Museum of Art – Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI

  • 2013

    Power, Aperture Gallery, New York City, NY
    Das Fenster im Blick, Art Foyer der DZ Bank Kunstsammlung, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
    Power, Artstation, Tel Aviv
    My Joburg – Kunstszene Johannesburg, Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden, Germany
    Fotografia – Festival Internazionale Di Roma. Vacatio, MACRO Museo d´Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, Italy
    Present Tense – Photographies du Sud de l´Afrique, Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, France
    Power, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
    Power, Warehouse A’, Port of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
    My J’oburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
    Distance and Desire: Encou nters with the African Archive, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany
    Power, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon
    Cityscapes – Cinco Fábulas Urbanas, CENTROCENTRO CIBELES DE CULTURA Y CIUDADANÍA, Madrid, Spain
    Prix Pictet – Power, Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland
    Power – Prix Pictet, Huis Marseille stichting voor fotografie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    SERRALVES COLLECTION: RECENT WORKS, Museu Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, Portugal
    Aufstieg und Fall der Apartheid: Fotografie und Bürokratie des täglichen Lebens, Haus der Kunst München, Munich, Germany
    Prix Pictet Power, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey
    Power, Hungarian House of Photography in Mai Manó House, Budapest, Hungary

  • 2012

    1era. Bienal de Montevideo 2012 – El Gran Sur (The Great South), BIENAL DE MONTEVIDEO, Montevideo, Uruguay
    Power, Galerie Vanessa Quang, Paris, France
    The Traveller – A Visual Journey by Alexander Ramselaar, Tent – Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam, Netherlands
    Power, Bernheimer Fine Art Photography, Munich, Germany
    _ The Prix Pictet – Power Exhibition_, The Saatchi Gallery, London, Great Britain
    Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, ICP – International Center of Photography, New York City, NY
    Viewpoint / A closer look at showing, Huis Marseille stichting voor fotografie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Wir sind die anderen – We are the others, Art Foyer der DZ Bank Kunstsammlung, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
    Lost Places – Orte der Photographie, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
    Auf Augenhöhe: Meisterwerke aus Mittelalter und Moderne, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany
    La Triennale 2012 – Intense Proximity, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
    Africa/Africa – Abbaye St André, Centre d’art contemporain Meymac, Meymac, France
    African Photography: For Whose Eyes?, Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady, NY
    Prix Pictet – Growth, Ayyam Gallery – Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

  • 2011

    Prix Pictet – Growth, Gallery of Photography, Dublin, South Africa
    Prix Pictet: Growth, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
    GROWTH – Prix Pictet, arteversum, Dusseldorf, Germany
    The Eye is a Lonely Hunter – Images of Humankind, Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim, Germany
    Beyond Frontiers – Summer show, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
    Present Tense, Gulbenkian. Próximo Futuro, Lisbon, Portugal
    Appropriated Landscapes, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany
    Prix Pictet, Christophe Guye Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
    Il corpo metafora di un’esperienza, CIAC – Centro Italiano Arte Contemporanea, Foligno, Italy
    Growth – Prix Pictet, Warehouse A’, Port of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
    Photography: New Documentary Forms, Tate Modern, London, Great Britain
    New Documentaries Form at Tate Modern, Akbank Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey
    Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, Victoria & Albert Museum – V&A, London, Great Britain
    Possible Cities: Africa In Photography and Video, Haverford College, Haverford, PA
    Where is my Place?, La Galleria di Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy
    The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

  • 2010

    21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, QLD
    FINE ART 2010, ARTCO Galerie GmbH, Herzogenrath
    DRAMA in SEVEN ACTS, OMC Gallery For Contemporary Art, Huntington Beach, CA
    BREAKING NEWS. Contemporary Photography from the Middle East and Africa, Ex Ospedale Sant’Agostino, Modena, Italy
    The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today, MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY
    Always Moving Forward, Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography , Toronto, ON
    Photography Group Show, Galerie van der Mieden, Antwerp, Belgium

  • 2009

    ARTCOFINE ART, ARTCO Galerie GmbH, Herzogenrath, Germany
    Summer 2009/10: Projects, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    WELTBILDER 3, Stadthaus, Zurich, Switzerland
    EX NUGIS SERIA d’Afrique et d’ailleurs…, Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz, Nogent-sur Marne, France
    Beyond Beauty: Photographs from the Duke University Special Collections Library, Duke University, Durham, NC
    Kunst aus einhundert Jahren 1909 – 2009. Highlights der Daimler Kunst Sammlung, Galerie im Prediger, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany
    Thy Brothers’ Keeper, Kulturzentrum Zehntscheuer, Rottenburg am Neckar, Germany
    prospekt Johannesburg, Gl Holtegaard, Holte
    Die Tropen, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
    Great Expectations – Contemporary Photography Looks At Today’S Bitter Years, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg
    Mercedes- Benz Award for South African Art and Culture 2009, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
    Then & now: South African photography, MGA – Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill, Victoria, Australia
    Face of Our Time, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA

  • 2008

    is it tomorrow yet?, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
    Zones of Conflict, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York City, NY
    A Look Away – South African photography today, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
    Die Tropen. Ansichten von der Mitte der Weltkugel,Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
    Snap Judgments, Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Home Lands-Land Marks: Contemporary Art from South America, Haunch of Venison – London, Great Britain
    Peripheral vision and collective body, MUSEION – Museum für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst , Bolzano, Italy
    Then and Now: Eight South African Photographers, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Durham, NC
    Cities in Crisis – Photographs of the South African Urban Landscape, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
    FotoGrafia. Festival Internazionale di Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
    Guy Tillim (RSA) und Verborgene Welten mit Vanessa Püntener (CH) und Olga Titus (CH), Haus für Kunst Uri, Altdorf, Switzerland
    Reality Check, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
    Os Tropicos – Die Tropen, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil – CCBB – Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
    Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN
    Biennale Cuvée, OK Offenes Kulturhaus OÖ, Linz, Austria
    Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA

  • 2007

    Summer 2007/8, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    2nd Arts in Marrakech International Biennale, Marrakech Biennale Association, Marrakech, Morocco
    Os Tropicos – Die Tropen, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil – CCBB – Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
    Zeitgenössische Fotokunst aus Südafrika, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum, Germany
    South Africa on Paper, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, Australia
    Africa Remix – Contemporary art of a continent, Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Johannesburg, South Africa
    Global Cities, Tate Modern, London, Great Britain
    Documenta 12, Documenta, Kassel, Germany
    Thy Brothers’ Keeper, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
    Juicios instantáneos, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
    Zeitgenössische Fotokunst aus Südafrika, NBK – Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany

  • 2006

    Another World – Bamako 2005, CENTRALE for contemporary art, Brussels, Belgium
    South African Art Now, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    27° Bienal de São Paulo, Bienal de Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
    Africa Remix, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
    Photography, Video, Mixed Media III, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
    VU!, Noorderlicht Fotogalerie, Groningen, Netherlands
    Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, Miami Art Central, Miami, FL
    Africa Remix – Contemporary Art of a Continent, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
    Thy Brothers Keeper, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
    Outside Europe, Stadtgalerie Kiel, Kiel, Germany
    Snap Judgments – New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, ICP – International Center of Photography, New York City, NY

  • 2005

    Outside Europe – Aus der Sammlung DaimlerChrysler, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
    South African art 1848 – now, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
    Africa Remix – Contemporary art of a continent, Centre Pompidou – Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris, France
    Africa Remix – Contemporary Art of a Continent, Hayward Gallery, London, Great Britain

  • 2004

    Afrika Remix – Zeitgenössische Kunst eines Kontinents, Museum
    Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, Germany
    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, Dusseldorf, Germany

  • 2002

    Positions of South African Photography – Today, OMC Gallery For Contemporary Art, Dusseldorf, Germany
    Shooting Resistance: South African Photography 1976 – 1994, Axis Gallery Inc., New York City, NY

  • 1998

    Foreign Affairs: Conflicts In The Global Village, The Alternative Museum (TAM), New York City, NY
    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

Public Collections

  • Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
    Centre National des Arts Plastiques, France
    DZ Bank Art Collection, Frankfurt
    Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris
    Fondation Leschot, Freiburg, CH
    Fundacao de Serralves, Porto
    Fundacio Foto Colectania, Barcelona
    Gordon Schachat Collection, Johannesburg
    Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, USA
    Huis Marseilles Fotomuseum, Amsterdam
    International Centre of Photography, New York
    Johannesburg Art Gallery, SA
    Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe
    Museum of Modern Art, New York
    National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
    National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen
    Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin
    Queensland Art Gallery, Australia
    San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
    Sasol Corporate Art Collection
    South African National Gallery – Iziko Museums, Cape Town
    South African Reserve Bank Art Collection
    Standard Bank Arfrican Art Collection
    Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
    Tate Modern, London
    The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen and New York