[3] During his first visit to England as an exchange student in 1983, he discovered the British youth culture and the local fashion and music magazines of the time.

[8] Tillmans was initially known for his seemingly casual, sometimes snapshot-like portraits of friends (most notably, fashion designer Lutz Huelle and fellow artist Alexandra Bircken)[9] and other youth in his immediate surroundings and scene.

[10] For the Index Magazine, he shot covers and assignments, including images of John Waters, Gilbert & George, and Udo Kier.

During this time, he began to show more frequently, developing an exhibition style that consisted of nonhierarchical arrangements of unframed photographs pinned or taped onto the gallery’s walls.

His portraits, still lifes, sky photographs (e.g. the Concorde series), astrophotography, aerial shots and landscapes are motivated equally by aesthetic and political interests, especially related to homosexuality and gender identity.

Operating on the basis of the fundamental equality of all motifs and supports, through this continual re-arranging, repositioning, questioning and reinforcement, Tillmans avoids ascribing any ‘conclusions’ to his work and thus subjects his photographic vision to a perpetual re-contextualization.

[19] In an interview that year, he describes the corresponding change from using viewfinders to integrated camera monitors as "completely turning on its head the psychology of photography, which has always been a dialogue between photographer, object and the imaginary image that one is envisioning, thinking, hoping for.

"[22] According to Tillmans, the higher resolution of digital photographs correlates to "a transformation in the whole world"; he further explains: "In recent years, everything has become HD, so I think it is inevitable that the overwhelming nature of this information density is reflected in my images.

Shot from a wide range of places, including private gardens, parks, railway tracks, and the perimeter fence around Heathrow airport, they record the daily passing of the airplane.

[28] Later works created directly in the darkroom without the use of a camera, and often largely accidental (e.g. "Blushes," "Mental Pictures," and "Freischwimmer"[30]), present photography as a self-referential medium – one that could serve as an experimental ground for the creation of a new type of image structure.

In "Blushes," fine, thread-like lines, apparently drawn with light, swim over the surface of the photographic paper, and create delicate, fluid patterns.

These colourful photo-paper works are folded, creased or otherwise manipulated, allowing for a subtle play with the material surface and the resulting illusion of lines and contrast.

The ways that surface structure and image depth influence each other is shown in his large-format works whose original material is analogue photocopies (ongoing since 2006).

[36] In 2005, at his major supporter Maureen Paley's gallery, Tillmans showed his large-scale display-case installation Truth Study Center.

The collage-like arrangements of the table displays produce an open-ness and potentiality in terms of aesthetics and content, while raising a critical question about the interpretive possibilities of the visible in a global information-society.

[39] In 2002, Tillmans filmed a video clip for the pop band Pet Shop Boys’ single "Home and Dry," composed almost entirely of shots documenting the mice living in the London Underground system.

[41] In 2011, Tillmans collaborated with The Opiates by offering a range of photographs to accompany their Hollywood Under the Knife album and Rainy Days and Remixes EP.

[43] In 2016, Tillmans' track "Device Control" was included on American singer and rapper Frank Ocean's video album Endless.

[43] Between April 2006 and late 2011, Tillmans maintained the exhibition space in the ground floor of his Bethnal Green studio, a former umbrella factory named Moarain House, at 223 Cambridge Heath Road, London.

In the small gallery Tillmans developed a program of exhibitions with political art from other artists who he believed had not been given the attention they deserved, specifically in London.

[48][49] Exhibitions were held of work by Jenny Holzer, Wolfgang Breuer,[48] David Wojnarowicz,[48] Corita Kent,[48] Charlotte Posenenske,[48] Isa Genzken,[48] the films of Len Lye, and photographs from the Center for Land Use Interpretation.

His work, as a whole, has also largely spoken to the LGBTQ experience: 2014's "Arms and Legs" is an erotic close-up of a male hand slipped underneath another man's red athletic shorts; 2012's "Juan Pablo & Karl, Chingaza" features two men smoking and laying [sic] together on a bed of grass.

[3] Tillmans' work has since been shown in large solo exhibitions at European museums, for example the Kunsthalle Zürich (1995), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (1998), Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2001), Castello di Rivoli in Italy (2002), Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2002), the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (2008), and Serpentine Gallery in London (2010).

[59] In 2004, the Portikus, Frankfurt, invited Tillmans to curate "Inventory / Scott King / Donald Urquhart", an exhibition presenting three artistic positions from London.

This preoccupation, together with a rigorous attention to detail (as the pins, clips and tape used for hanging the pictures), has led him to have a dedicated team for setting up his exhibitions.

The members of this team are Danish sculptor Anders Clausen, Chilean biologist and architect Federico Martelli (since 2006), and Colombian artist Juan Echeverri (since 2012).

[83] In this capacity, he organized an auction at Sotheby’s in October 2022 to benefit the ICA, with contributions from Tacita Dean, Richard Prince and Anish Kapoor, among others.