Wolfgang Tillmans has a special feeling for males. In his portrait photographs, he examines them from every angle, indoors & out, in groups & alone, clothed & naked. Sometimes he treats them as objects of desire & other times as objects of curiosity. Despite his camera’s studied distance from its subjects, his photographs read as very personal statements: "Here are the people & the things I like & this is the way I like to see them". This is why I feel so seduced by them." Tillmans brings eroticism to his photographs of fashion, the natural world, city skylines & club culture.
Tillmans moved to NYC in 1994, where he met & fell in love with the German painter Jochen Klein. After moving to England, Tillmans lived with Klein until he died of AIDS-related complications in 1997. When the German born artist was awarded the Turner prize in 2000, the feedback was quite pointed. Tillmans, a mere 32 years old, was the first photographer & the first non-British person to be given the prize. He was known for shooting London's street culture, the rise of Gay Pride, the nightlife of the clubbing generation. He worked for The Face Magazine. The studied authenticity of his photographs was thought of as an exercise in style, slight & understated. Some critics considered Tillmans to not even be an artist.
In 2001, Tillmans was awarded first prize in the competition for the design of the AIDS-Memorial for the City of Munich. In 2002, he filmed the video for Pet Shop Boys’ Home & Dry, composed almost entirely of shots documenting the mice living in the London Underground System.
A decade later, Tillmans is intensely fashionable & internationally acclaimed. He has had museum retrospectives all over the world.
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