Wolfgang Tillmans

Photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has created a varied body of work that is characterised by a continuing examination of the roots of the photography medium and observation of his surroundings. Tillmans was the first photographer to receive the Tate’s prestigious Turner Prize, as well as the first non-British recipient. In addition, he has received the Hasselblad Award, the Centenary Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, the Charles Wollaston Award for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the Culture Prize of the German Society for Photography, and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Remscheid attended Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design (now Arts University Bournemouth) in southern England from 1990 to 1992. After finishing his studies, he relocated to London before spending a year in New York, where he met the German painter Jochen Klein. Tillmans lived with Klein after returning to England until Klein passed away in 1997 as a result of problems associated to AIDS. Tillmans has split his time between Berlin and London since 2007. He was a professor of interdisciplinary art at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main from 2003 to 2006 after holding a guest professorship at the Hochschule für bildende Kunst in Hamburg from 1998 to 1999 and an Honorary Fellowship at the Arts University Bournemouth in 2001.

In order to chronicle the recovery efforts following the horrific earthquake that had struck the nation the year before, Tillmans travelled to Haiti in 2011 with the nonprofit Christian Aid. Tillmans served as an Artist Trustee of the Tate Board from 2009 to 2014. He also serves on the Tate Britain Council and the museum’s Collection Committee. He was chosen to serve on the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Council in 2017 and was named board chair in 2019.