Urs Tillmanns worked for over 14 years as a professional photographer with qualifications in advertising, science, research and industry. His most important jobs as a photographer were in forensic science at the Basel-Stadt public prosecutor's office, as head of the photography department at the Longines SA watch factory in St. Imier, and as an industrial photographer for documentation and advertising at the Alusuisse AG research and development institute.  

In 1978, he was appointed to the editorial board of the newly founded magazine "Photographie", where he was editor-in-chief of the technology section for 13 years. 

After becoming self-employed in 1991, Urs Tillmanns primarily worked as a specialist journalist and consultant for various companies in the photography industry in the field of public relations. He also worked on various book projects and customer magazines and regularly published a press review for the photography industry. 

In 1994, Urs Tillmanns launched the Swiss fortnightly magazine "Fotointern" for the target group of professional photographers, the photo trade and industrial companies. A monthly French edition of this magazine followed in 2005, and in 2008 the specialist information was supplemented by a daily updated website. Since the two print editions had to be discontinued in 2009 for economic reasons, Urs Tillmanns has concentrated his journalistic efforts on the two websites www.fotointern.ch and www.fotoagenda.ch. These were handed over to Markus Zitt on 1 January 2022.

In addition to countless specialist articles, Urs Tillmanns has written a total of 13 specialist books as sole or co-author on general and specialised photographic topics and has collaborated on many publication projects as a co-author.