Guy
Tilim

Guy Tilim

biography

Born in 1962 in Johannesburg. Guy Tillim is a great figure of the contemporary South-African photographic scene.

He began as a young reporter in the 1980’s, when he became aware of photography as a way to fight against the racial gap created by the Apartheid in his country: “the camera is the ideal tool to transcend those borders, to see what happened in my own country”.

For years, Tillim photographed documentary projects of visual and historical strength to create testimonies to the social conflict and inequalities prevailing in South Africa. In those pictures, blunt and dark colours appear suddenly from a damp grey background, in an imitative harmony with the harshness of its subjects.

His work has been widely published in press and in numerous books, and exhibited in prestigious festivals and collective exhibitions.

Guy Tillim is represented by the Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town.

Series

Museum of the revolution, 2019

With this series Museum of the Revolution, Guy Tillim observes the effects of decolonisation within the major capital cities of Africa.

Edit Beijing, 2017

Born during a artistic residency, the series Edit Beijing is the conclusion of Guy Tillim's wandering throught Beijing's streets and alleys.

Second nature, 2012

Tillim has been photographing the landscape in French Polynesia. He was drawn to this landscape that has been continuously sketched - and later photographed - since Captain James Cook's voyages in the late 18th century, perhaps because it almost eludes convincing representation...

Roma, Città di Mezzo, 2009

Series | Guy Tillim's Roma, Città di Mezzo was commissioned for FotoGrafia, the international photography festival of Rome, running from 29 May to 2 August 2009...

Patrice Lumumba Avenue, 2008

Series | In many African cities, there are streets, avenues and squares named after Patrice Lumumba, one of the first elected African leaders of modern times, winning the Congo election after independence from Belgium in 1960...

Business aviation on Democratic Republic of Congo, 2007

Series | With only 300 miles of paved roads, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (a country roughly the size of Western Europe) is dependent on its aircraft, regardless of the planes' safety records or sturdiness...

Congo Democratic, 2006

Series | Successive wars in the Congo, one beginning in 1996 and the other in 1998, have left the country devastated. After five years of combat, and an estimated 3.5 million ...

Petros Village, 2006

Series | Guy Tillim looks intimately at the daily life of the residents of a village in central Malawi. On two occasions he stayed for a week in the village and quietly observed the conversations and routines of the day...

Jo’burg, South Africa, 2004

Series | Jo'burg: an intimate nickname for a South African metropolis. It is not then Johannesburg that is offered to look at here, but the personal vision that Guy Tillim has of it. He drags us inside districts, inside the buildings of blighted areas of the capital of the richest province of South Africa.

South Africa, A Decade of Democracy, 2004

Series | Ten years after the end of apartheid, Guy Tillim reflects on a country that is trying to rebuild itself after several years of racial crimes that divided South Africa between 1948 and 1991..

Leopold and Mobutu, 2002

Series | Guy Tillim spent July to September 2003 photographing traces of the colonial occupation of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium and vestiges of more recent plunder under Mobutu Sese Sek.

Museum of the revolution, 2019

With this series Museum of the Revolution, Guy Tillim observes the effects of decolonisation within the major capital cities of Africa.

Edit Beijing, 2017

Born during a artistic residency, the series Edit Beijing is the conclusion of Guy Tillim's wandering throught Beijing's streets and alleys.

Second nature, 2012

Tillim has been photographing the landscape in French Polynesia. He was drawn to this landscape that has been continuously sketched - and later photographed - since Captain James Cook's voyages in the late 18th century, perhaps because it almost eludes convincing representation...

Roma, Città di Mezzo, 2009

Series | Guy Tillim's Roma, Città di Mezzo was commissioned for FotoGrafia, the international photography festival of Rome, running from 29 May to 2 August 2009...

Patrice Lumumba Avenue, 2008

Series | In many African cities, there are streets, avenues and squares named after Patrice Lumumba, one of the first elected African leaders of modern times, winning the Congo election after independence from Belgium in 1960...

Business aviation on Democratic Republic of Congo, 2007

Series | With only 300 miles of paved roads, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (a country roughly the size of Western Europe) is dependent on its aircraft, regardless of the planes' safety records or sturdiness...

Congo Democratic, 2006

Series | Successive wars in the Congo, one beginning in 1996 and the other in 1998, have left the country devastated. After five years of combat, and an estimated 3.5 million ...

Petros Village, 2006

Series | Guy Tillim looks intimately at the daily life of the residents of a village in central Malawi. On two occasions he stayed for a week in the village and quietly observed the conversations and routines of the day...

Jo’burg, South Africa, 2004

Series | Jo'burg: an intimate nickname for a South African metropolis. It is not then Johannesburg that is offered to look at here, but the personal vision that Guy Tillim has of it. He drags us inside districts, inside the buildings of blighted areas of the capital of the richest province of South Africa.

South Africa, A Decade of Democracy, 2004

Series | Ten years after the end of apartheid, Guy Tillim reflects on a country that is trying to rebuild itself after several years of racial crimes that divided South Africa between 1948 and 1991..

Leopold and Mobutu, 2002

Series | Guy Tillim spent July to September 2003 photographing traces of the colonial occupation of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium and vestiges of more recent plunder under Mobutu Sese Sek.

Museum of the revolution, 2019

With this series Museum of the Revolution, Guy Tillim observes the effects of decolonisation within the major capital cities of Africa.

Edit Beijing, 2017

Born during a artistic residency, the series Edit Beijing is the conclusion of Guy Tillim's wandering throught Beijing's streets and alleys.

Second nature, 2012

Tillim has been photographing the landscape in French Polynesia. He was drawn to this landscape that has been continuously sketched - and later photographed - since Captain James Cook's voyages in the late 18th century, perhaps because it almost eludes convincing representation...

Roma, Città di Mezzo, 2009

Series | Guy Tillim's Roma, Città di Mezzo was commissioned for FotoGrafia, the international photography festival of Rome, running from 29 May to 2 August 2009...

Patrice Lumumba Avenue, 2008

Series | In many African cities, there are streets, avenues and squares named after Patrice Lumumba, one of the first elected African leaders of modern times, winning the Congo election after independence from Belgium in 1960...

Business aviation on Democratic Republic of Congo, 2007

Series | With only 300 miles of paved roads, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (a country roughly the size of Western Europe) is dependent on its aircraft, regardless of the planes' safety records or sturdiness...

Congo Democratic, 2006

Series | Successive wars in the Congo, one beginning in 1996 and the other in 1998, have left the country devastated. After five years of combat, and an estimated 3.5 million ...

Petros Village, 2006

Series | Guy Tillim looks intimately at the daily life of the residents of a village in central Malawi. On two occasions he stayed for a week in the village and quietly observed the conversations and routines of the day...

Jo’burg, South Africa, 2004

Series | Jo'burg: an intimate nickname for a South African metropolis. It is not then Johannesburg that is offered to look at here, but the personal vision that Guy Tillim has of it. He drags us inside districts, inside the buildings of blighted areas of the capital of the richest province of South Africa.

South Africa, A Decade of Democracy, 2004

Series | Ten years after the end of apartheid, Guy Tillim reflects on a country that is trying to rebuild itself after several years of racial crimes that divided South Africa between 1948 and 1991..

Leopold and Mobutu, 2002

Series | Guy Tillim spent July to September 2003 photographing traces of the colonial occupation of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium and vestiges of more recent plunder under Mobutu Sese Sek.

Interviews

Reportage culture
RFI
—
Interview by Muriel Maalouf, 2019

South African photographer Guy Tillim, winner of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Prize in 2017, has travelled the African continent and captured historical and societal changes over the years. “Museum of the revolution” is the title of his exhibition at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation.

Listen

Regardez voir
France Inter
—
Interview by Brigitte Patient, 2019

With this new “Museum of Revolution” series, South African photographer Guy Tillim is creating an open-air museum of the traces of the colonial and post-colonial years in major African cities between 2014 and 2018. Agnès Sire, the director of the HCB Foundation and Guy Tillim are on Brigitte Patient’s microphone.

Listen

books

Museum of the Revolution

MACK, co-published with Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson - 2019

Edit Beijing

Éditions Bessard - 2017

O Futuro Certo

The Walther Collection / Steidl - 2015

Second Nature

Prestel - 2012

Roma città di mezzo

Punctum Press - 2009

Avenue Patrice Lumumba

Prestel/Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University - 2008

Congo Democratic

Stevenson / Wiehager / Extraspazio - 2006

Petros village

Punctum Press - 2006

Jo’burg

Filigranes Éditions / Ste Publishers - 2005

Leopold and Mobutu

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

Kunhinga portraits

Michael Stevenson - 2019

Museum of the Revolution

MACK, co-published with Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson - 2019

Edit Beijing

Éditions Bessard - 2017

O Futuro Certo

The Walther Collection / Steidl - 2015

Second Nature

Prestel - 2012

Roma città di mezzo

Punctum Press - 2009

Avenue Patrice Lumumba

Prestel/Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University - 2008

Congo Democratic

Stevenson / Wiehager / Extraspazio - 2006

Petros village

Punctum Press - 2006

Jo’burg

Filigranes Éditions / Ste Publishers - 2005

Leopold and Mobutu

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

Kunhinga portraits

Michael Stevenson - 2019

Museum of the Revolution

MACK, co-published with Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson - 2019

Edit Beijing

Éditions Bessard - 2017

O Futuro Certo

The Walther Collection / Steidl - 2015

Second Nature

Prestel - 2012

Roma città di mezzo

Punctum Press - 2009

Avenue Patrice Lumumba

Prestel/Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University - 2008

Congo Democratic

Stevenson / Wiehager / Extraspazio - 2006

Petros village

Punctum Press - 2006

Jo’burg

Filigranes Éditions / Ste Publishers - 2005

Leopold and Mobutu

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

Kunhinga portraits

Michael Stevenson - 2019

awards

HCB Award

For his project: Museum of the Revolution

2017

Special Jury Prize, Lianzhou Foto Festival, China

For his project:  « Patrice Lumumba Avenue»

2015

Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Germany

For his project: Jo’burg

2005

DaimlerChrysler Award for Photography, South Africa

For his project: Leopold and Mobutu

2004

Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award, Japan

For his series: Leopold and Mobutu

2003

Prix SCAM, Roger Pic, France

For his project: Kuito, Angola

2002

Mondi Award for photojournalism, South Africa

For his report: the Himba people of Northern Namibia

1999

Mondi Award for photojournalism, South Africa

For his project: Congo River: journey from Kisangani to Kinshasa

1998