Eric Bachmann (1940–2019) was born in Zurich. In 1956 he starts his photographic career at the photo studio Meiner, where he completes a three-year apprenticeship. During this time, the photo studio Meiner, well-known for its stylish portaits of Zurich’s high-end society, begins to experience financial troubles.
Eric Bachmann is probably the photographer who has taken the most photos in the studios of Swiss Television DRS. Mostly as a freelance photographer, he photographed the TV people for almost 40 years. Among them were dozens of covers, but also pictures in stamp format for the TV program pages. With his photos he served all Swiss print media, from the NZZ to the "Glückspost". The mini-portrait of the ever-radiant Kurt Felix alone he hawked to editors more than a hundred times over. This lucrative multiple enabled him to afford the big trips that allowed him to express himself artistically as a reporter. But he always returned to his bread-and-butter job at Schweizer Fernsehen DRS.
Eric Bachmann's curiosity, however, extended beyond the everyday needs of the official television photographer; in addition, he always photographed what was important to him personally. Often these were snapshots that he did not want to miss. But also posed things that found no favor with the editors. Eric Bachmann's gaze penetrated the surface and portrayed television culture in all its contradictoriness.
