Notes

"Tillim's images are born from the aftermath of violent revolutions and the gist of disillusioned independence, interrogating long-debated notions of emancipation and transition, capturing the gravitas of third world instability in the most poetic and nuanced manner. Tillim crafts the semiotic and philosophical tensions inherent to the withering power structures that compose his subject matter into enlightening political statements. This subject matter is amplified by Tillim's signature technique of filtering and refracting light, allowing his images to draw one's eye towards certain ideological clues, whilst serving as aesthetic devices that verges on the painterly; a kind of photographic 'Neue Sachlichkeit'. His photographs contain an iconic hush, imbuing a distinct luminosity in which he captures the tragic and disparate, creating a slowing of time, an objectivity that sinks into the subjectivity of the lens, accentuating gestures, impressions, and textures that are easily ignored, finding beauty in the seemingly banal."¹

1. Rook and Van Wyk Gallery, i-Jusi Portfolio no. 2, page 21.

Literature

Rook and Van Wyk Gallery, i-Jusi Portfolio no. 2, page 21.