Otto William Bahl, photographer and printmaker, was born on 19 March 1886 in Indiana to Catherine Ferringer and Joseph C. Bahl. Nothing can be found on his early schooling but his draft registration card from 1918 lists him as living in Chicago and working as a commercial artist for Frederick Garver. He was a member of the Camera Club and that same year he exhibited four photographs in the Camera Club’s Annual Exhibition of Pictorial Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago. His photograph, Night with Its Deepening Shadows and Susorous [sic] Trees, was mentioned in the article on the exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago in the May 18, 1918, issue of American Art News.

In the 1920s, Bahl was employed as an artist for a firm in the famous Wrigley building. He continued his membership in the Camera Club and his work was included in the Pictorial Photography exhibition in 1921 and 1924. He was listed as Print Director on the cover of the catalogue for the 1924 exhibition.

In 1938, he and his sister, Rose, purchased a piece of property in Sevier County, Tennessee, in what would become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After his marriage to Alice Workman just six months later, the three relocated to this property and built a house where they remained until 1951. The homestead, overlooking Indian Camp Creek, is now registered as Otto Bahl Place. In 1955, the house was officially sold to the Parks Service and by that time Otto and Alice had relocated to Monterey, California, where they lived for the remainder of their days.

Otto William Bahl died on 12 December 1957 in Monterey, California.