Wolfgang Tillmans is a superstar of 1990s photography, who revolutionized fashion photography while crossing into the highest ranks of the art world. This text covers his entire career, from the best-selling debut portraits in 1995, to his abstract works.

Alongside portraits, Tillmans has expanded his subject to include architecture, landscape and still life, and he has produced installations of his work reminiscent of Raymond Pettibon and the collage techniques of the 1960s conceptual artists. From lifestyle magazines spreads Tillmans has moved to room-sized installations, for example of faraway views the concorde flying overhead (Chisenhale Gallery, London, 1997) as well as a series of found photographs of soldiers from newspapers (British Art Show, 1999). In such installations of his unframed photos stuck to the wall with tape like images cut-out of magazines, he references his own non-art origins and his continuing pursuit of breaking down the old-fashioned divisions between art, fashion and photography.

Interview - Artist and theorist Peter Halley discusses with the artist his rapidly changing role, from Wunderkinder photo superstar in 1995 to established, Turner-prizewinning master of the 'new photography'. - Survey - Critic Jan Verwoert examines the many genres and styles in the artist's work, spanning portraiture, still life and landscape, as well as abstract and figurative imagery. - Focus - Critic and curator Midori Matsuri analyses a single project, Concorde (1997), a room-size installation and artist's book which records the daily passing of this epoch-making aeroplane. - Artist's Choice - The artist has selected extracts from a nineteenth-century Quaker text by Caroline Stephen on divine inspiration, perhaps suggesting a parallel with artistic inspiration. - Artist's Writings - The diaristic nature of Wolfgang Tillmans' art is reflected in the diary entries published here, while the 'revolution' he has enacted in art, fashion and photography is discussed in a new essay written especially for this volume. - Chronology and Bibliography