Tillman’s love for the platinum print began in 1976 at the Frederick Evans’ exhibit in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was 1990 before life allowed him to begin his journey to becoming a master of the process. The platinum print continues to be his photographic medium of expression and his understanding of the materials continues to deepen in creating his works of beauty.
After ten years as a photojournalist for the Maryville Daily Times (Tennessee) and the death of his first wife, Tillman changed course to focus on photography as an art form. He earned an MFA at the University of Delaware under John Weiss (1990) while working full time as an instructor for the Maine Media Workshops’ yearlong Resident program.
In 1996 he took a job at the Waterford School (Sandy, Utah) and was tasked with building a photography program for grades 8-12. 2001 provided an opportunity for him to bring his family back to Maine, setting up Tillman Crane Photography as a fine art photographer and workshop teacher.
He has taught workshops in Mexico, Scotland, England, Canada, China, and Japan as well as over 100 workshops in the United States. In addition to his own branded workshops he has led workshops for the Maine Media Workshops, Visionary Wild Workshops, Santa Fe Workshops, Peters Valley School of Craft, Coupeville Art Center and Inversnaid Photography Center.
Tillman has frequently written on the craft of photography, with twenty articles for View Camera Magazine and other pieces in Photo Technique, Silver Shotz and the Ilford Photo Instructor Newsletter.
In 2001 Tillman Crane/Structure was published as a monograph spanning 25 years of images. This was followed by three limited edition books: Touchstones (2005) a visual poem to Scotland, Odin Stone (2008) a photographic story of the spirit that is the Orkney Islands today and A Walk Along the Jordan (2009) celebrating the rebirth of the Jordan River as it runs from Utah Lake north to the Great Salt Lake through metropolitan Salt Lake City. Each book has been accompanied by exhibitions of platinum prints.
After 35 years of working solely with film and large format cameras he has enthusiastically embraced the digital world. Tillman is enjoying the versatility of traveling more lightly and the ability to make ever bigger negatives for his prints.
Two of his highest professional achievements include his solo, one hundred platinum print exhibit, Alchemy of Light (2016), at the National Art Museum of China (Beijing) and his induction into the inaugural class of the Artist Hall of Fame in the Alabama Center for the Arts.
His platinum prints are included in collections at Brigham Young University Museum, (Utah), Carnegie Center for Visual Arts (Alabama), Farnsworth Museum of Art (Maine), Fidelity Investments (Utah), Gibbs Museum of Art (South Carolina), Irish Museum of Modern Art (Ireland), Portland Museum of Art (Maine), San Jose Museum of Art (California), University of New England (Maine), Zions Bank (Utah) and private collections around the world.
His work is included in numerous book collections: Photographic Alternative Process (Jill Enfield, 2020); Maine Photography, A History (Bischof, Danley and Shuttleworth Jr, 2016); Looking at Images (Jensen, Lenswork Publishing, 2014); Le adici dello sguardo (The Roots of the Eye) (Edizioni Marcovldo, Il Filatoio, Caraglio, 2013); Why Photographs Work, (Barr, 2011) and The View Project, Seventy Photographers Reflect on Meaning and Perception (Ed. Joyce Tennyson, 2010).
Tillman continues to find joy in creating and teaching photography while being blessed to live in Maine.