Eric Schaal had been interested in everything to do with art since his childhood. He was given his first camera for his Bar Mitzvah and learned how to use it at a nearby photo studio. He initially took up a career in business, which his father had planned for him. He spent the years 1928 to 1930 living with an uncle in New York and it was during this period that he began taking portraits of celebrities from the art world, first of all as a hobby. He kept this up after his return to Munich and the result was a series of impressive photographs of figures like Igor Strawinsky and Béla Bartók.

Schaal went into exile in the USA in 1936 and became a professional photographer in New York. He worked for the Pix photo agency and the magazines Time and Life portraying numerous artists and academics. His second wife, Miriam, explained in a later interview that his secret technique was to get by with very little equipment and a great deal of conversation. (Eric Schaal, Photograph, 1998) She also said that Schaal only photographed people he was interested in and that he was able to engage intensely with the person he was portraying by digging deeply into his great wealth of knowledge about literature, art and music

Schaal returned to Europe in 1967 and settled in Switzerland. He intended to compile his work in a book he wanted to title Das Antlitz des schöpferischen Menschen [The Face of the Creative Person], but no longer managed this.

Selected works:
Of the artist portraits taken by Schaal, about 2,500 Vintage Prints have been handed down. About a hundred of them bear a handwritten dedication by the person being portrayed, among these the photographs of Vicky Baum, Paul Hindemith, Thomas Mann, Alfred Döblin, Walter Mehring, Bruno Walter, Arnold Schönberg, Oskar Kokoschka, Arnold Zweig and Stefan Zweig.

Further reading:
Eric Schaal, Photograph [das Buch erschien anlässlich der Ausstellung „Eric Schaal, Photograph“ in der Deutschen Bibliothek Frankfurt, Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933-1945, 16. Januar bis 14. März 1998]. Bonn: Weidle 1998
„Meinem besten Porträtisten ...“: Porträtfotografien und -zeichnungen aus den Beständen des Deutschen Exilarchivs 1933-1945. Eine Ausstellung des Deutschen Exilarchivs 1933-1945 der Deutschen Bibliothek [Ausstellung und Begleitbuch: Sylvia Asmus und Brita Eckert]. Leipzig / Frankfurt am Main / Berlin: Die Deutsche Bibliothek 2005