Tillim was born in Johannesburg in 1962, and lives in Vermaaklikheid, Western Cape. 

He started photographing professionally in 1986, working with the Afrapix collective until 1990. His work as a freelance photographer in South Africa for the local and foreign media included positions with Reuters between 1986 and 1988, and Agence France Presse in 1993 and 1994.

Throughout his career, Tillim has been concerned with investigating the traces of colonial power in southern Africa, present in its structures and urban life, and by extension with matters of perception of the landscape at large.

Tillim won the 2017 HBC Award presented by the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson for Museum of the Revolution. Previous awards include the Prix SCAM (Societe Civile des Auteurs Multimedia) Roger Pic in 2002, the Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award (Japan) in 2003, the 2004 DaimlerChrysler Award for South African photography, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award in 2005, and the first Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography from the Peabody Museum at Harvard University in 2006.

He has had a number of solo exhibitions at international institutions, including Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France (2019; 2009); Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Germany (2018); Fondazione di Sardegna, Cagliari, Italy (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO) (2017); Centre Photographique d'Ile-de-France, Paris, France (2013); Huis Marseille Museum of Photography, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2012); Kunsthalle Oldenburg, Germany (2010); Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2009); the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, USA (2009); Extracity, Antwerp, Belgium (2009); and the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, USA (2006), among others. Tillim has featured in notable group shows including Documenta 12 in 2007, the São Paulo Biennial in 2006, and the touring exhibitions Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life (2012-14) and Africa Remix (2004-7).

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