Ronald Tilleman
Netherlands
ARTIST BIO
Ronald Tilleman, 1962, IJsselstein, The Netherlands
I’m a Rotterdam lens-based artist and professional photographer with over 28 years of experience as an artist and in architectural and commercial photography.
As a child I loved drawing, later my drawings were inspired by Escher, Star Trek and Jacques Cousteau. With earnings from my paper round I bought my first dslr camera when I was 15 years old.
At 17 I joined the local camera club and won an award for the best photo of the year, handprinted in my own darkroom. That really encouraged me to continue with photography.
Being educated as a teacher, specialized in History, Art History and Drawing, I worked at primary and secondary schools for 15 years.
After winning the Fuji Netherlands Award and the title of Best Young Amateur Photographer in 1996, I transitioned to a full-time photography career in 1997. Since then, I’ve worked as a professional artist and commercial photographer on projects ranging from large-scale infrastructure to fine art.
I was selected to be the main photographer for all the photography (mostly documentary) of the construction of the Betuweroute (rail freight line between the Port of Rotterdam and Germany) a project of over 10 years.
I am a founding partner of Daph (Dutch Architectural Photographers) and was an active member from 2005 - 2012
My work as an artist as well as a commercial photographer has received multiple national and international awards, and has been published in numerous books and magazines.
Recent awards : Winner Selection of Dutch Photography '25 Awards by Dupho, (Dutch photographers) serie “Vacancy”2025 Gold winner PX3 2025 (Prix de la Photographie Paris, serie “Vacancy”. Gold winner B&W IPA 2025 with the serie “Fantaseas 2”
Recent exhibitions: 2025 Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, SO’25 Awards. During Paris Photo 2025: Joseph Froissard gallery. 2025 Photopolis photofestival, Agrinio Greece
Upcoming exhibitions : Exposure Photography Festival, Calgary, Canada February 5th to March 5th 2026. House of Lucie, Budapest, Hungary, PX3 (Prix de la Photographie Paris) 2025 winners show January 30th to February 12th 2026
I regularly teach photography workshops and masterclasses for students of photography and architecture, as well as corporate teams.
As both an artist and human being, my focus lies in exploring the relationship between people and their surroundings, how we shape, inhabit, and are influenced by the spaces we live, work, and dream in. – Ronald Tilleman
PROJECT STATEMENT
VACANCY
Vacancy (noun)
*a space or place that is available to be used
*place, location, site, town, space, vacancy
*idleness, vacuity, inactivity, vacancy
*an empty area or space
*being unoccupied
As a person and a photographer, I am fascinated by the complex relationship between humans and their (built) environment. How we relate to nature, cities, our homes, workplaces, but also holiday resorts and tourist destinations. How we influence these environments—and how they, in turn, influence us.
VACANCY is an ongoing, multi-year project in which I capture the emptiness and silence of hotels, resorts, and tourist spots during the holiday season. Moments and places where the human presence is temporarily absent, yet its traces remain subtly visible. Places we escape to, but which also reveal something about our way of life. These are images of in-between time: just before or after the rush, when silence and emptiness take over.
Inspired among other things by the Japanese concept of "Ma", like so many Japanese concepts, is difficult to translate. Ma refers to a pause in time or a void in space. Not as an absence of something, but as a meaningful interstitial space that gives meaning to the surrounding elements. Ma is the time and space that life needs to breathe, feel, and connect.
Photographed often during twilight, these scenes feel suspended—like stills from a paused film. Anticipating the next scene. There is a sense of stillness, a transitional phase, waiting for the next scene or movement. I therefore photograph during dawn or dusk—moments of transition themselves.
Not only is a holiday in itself a moment of in between in your life, but I see this series also as a metaphor for the transitional periods in our lives, where one phase ends but the next has yet to begin.
The title refers both to the familiar "No/Vacancy" signs at motels and to the Dutch word vakantie (holiday/vacation).
