After completing a B.Comm at the University of Cape Town in 1983, Tillim joined Afrapix, a collective of South African photographers, in 1986, and since then has seen his work widely published. His involvement with Afrapix continued until 1990, alongside positions with foreign media groups, such as Reuters (86 - 88) and Agence France Presse (93-94). He received the Mondi Award (South Africa) for photojournalism in 1998 for his essay of images entitled: Congo River - journey from Kinsangani to Kinshasa.

His work has been included in many exhibitions of South African art and photography, both at home and internationally. The South African National Gallery commissioned him to produce a portfolio of photographs on the Transkei region in 1990, and more recently in 2001. His work on Cuito, Angola, which debuted at the Gallery in April 2001, then travelled to Paris, and is described as "a backdrop to Guy Tillim's portrait of a city…… whilst remaining in the realm of war torn cities, Tillim captures an everday essence in this remarable exhibition." by South Photo, a South African based agency to which Tillim contributes.

Along similar lines, Tillim has gone on to photograph child soldiers in Sierra Leone for South African History Online. The photographs, taken in July 2001, are both penetrating and intimate, and display Tillim's distinctive aesthetic. His images are often of harsh realities, but he is seldom invasive or confrontational in his approach. He tends to look at situations from a side view, as a passive but empathetic spectator, and seeks an unusual yet humane moment to provide a lingering disquiet to the image.

His assignment work takes him to diverse environments with the common theme of war, destruction, torment, hope, and beauty. Tillim has the capacity to access the remoteness of the human condition and continues to be a visual spokesperson for communities in his immediate surroundings and Cape Town home base. Tillim spends much of his time out of the country on foreign assignments and self motivated projects.

Exhibitions

• "Quito - Portrait of a City", South African Museum, Cape Town, 2001, Paris 2001.
• "Child Soldiers of Sierra Leone" The Photographer's Gallery ZA, Cape Town, 2002.

Group shows

• "X-Scape", Shuttle '99, Helsinki, Finland, 1999, as well as The Granary, Cape Town, South Africa, 1999.
• "The Mask", 100 X C Photography in South Africa, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa, 1999.
• "The Mask" a South Photographs retrospective, Ben Susan Museum of Photography, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, 1999
• A South Photographs collective exhibition, Area Gallery, Cape Town, 1999.
• "Shooting Resistance, South African Photography 1976-1994" Axis Gallery, New York, 2002.

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