Richard de Tscharner was born in Bern in 1947. After his high school years in the Swiss capital, he enrolled at Geneva University to study economic and social sciences. Following his graduation in 1973, he joined the renowned private bank Lombard Odier & Cie, where he worked for the next 34 years. As he approached the age of 60, with a fulfilling career behind him, he retired to devote himself to a passion of his youth: photography.
In recent years, de Tscharner has had several solo exhibi-tions in Geneva, most recently at Sotheby's, and even more recently in Italy where the city of Todi, Umbria, honoured him in 2021 with a retrospective exhibition in three separa-te urban sites. His work has also been included in a number of prestigious international travelling exhibitions, including Civilization: The Way We Live Now, shown in museums in Korea, China, New Zealand, Australia, France, and this year in Italy. His work is also included in Flora Photographica, a publication by Thames & Hudson released this summer, while a touring exhibition, Flora Imaginaria, is currently on display in Sarasota, Florida.
Richard de Tscharner has recently finished a book project on the Swiss Alpine passes in collaboration with curator, museum director, and author William A. Ewing, philosopher and Professor of Religious Studies Frédéric Möri, Brigadier a.D Dr. Daniel Lätsch, and the head of Implenia during the construction of the St. Gotthard Base Tunnel Anton Affen-tranger, with a foreword by former President of the Swiss Confederation Doris Leuthard.
The book was published by Scheidegger & Spiess in 2023 and is considered one of the most comprehensive studies ever done on the Alpine passes in Switzerland.