[15][4][12][16] The photojournalists of the era, many of whom also worked with the Afrapix collective, were photographing often violent scenes of riots, war, and poverty on the black citizens of South Africa.
[12][4] After the Afrapix collective dissolved in 1991 and apartheid was politically resolved in 1994, Tillim's work shifted to document the lasting effects of South Africa's almost 50 year-long war on its black citizens.
[17][18][19] Many of his most significant bodies of work carry this theme, such as Johannesburg (May, 2005) and Jo'burg Downtown, which include photographs of scenes and dwellers of the city.
[15][6] Of the latter, Johannesburg museum curator Okwui Enwezor said that "as a series, Jo'burg represents a practice of post-apartheid documentary photography that links contemporary South Africa to its own history.
[21] In 2014, he participated in a collaborative exhibit at the Museum für Moderne Kunst entitled The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists.