I wrote a blog post about Bazelizing OpenEXR already. In the meanwhile, my pull request was accepted. OpenEXR has official support for Bazel now.

Here is an example that shows how to OpenEXR with Bazel (in case you want to give Bazel a try download it and follow the install instructions):

Create a WORKSPACE.bazel file:

# SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
# Copyright Contributors to the OpenEXR Project.

load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:git.bzl", "git_repository")

git_repository(
    name = "openexr",
    # branch = "master",
    commit = "28fa44d5c24dbed3f05c38b81d75ae08d72c0cf9",
    remote = "https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr",
    shallow_since = "1614357727 -0800",
)

load("@com_openexr//:bazel/third_party/openexr.bzl", "openexr_deps")

openexr_deps()

Create a BUILD.bazel file:

# SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
# Copyright Contributors to the OpenEXR Project.

cc_binary(
    name = "Demo",
    srcs = ["main.cpp"],
    deps = ["@com_openexr//:OpenEXR"],
)

Create a main.cpp file:

#include <ImfRgba.h>
#include <ImfRgbaFile.h>

#include <string>

// Function copied (with minior modifications) from pbrt-v3 (https://github.com/mmp/pbrt-v3) which is under BSD-2-Clause License
static void WriteImageEXR(const std::string &name, const float *pixels,
                        int xRes, int yRes, int totalXRes, int totalYRes,
                        int xOffset, int yOffset) {
    using namespace Imf;
    using namespace Imath;

    Rgba *hrgba = new Rgba[xRes * yRes];
    for (int i = 0; i < xRes * yRes; ++i)
        hrgba[i] = Rgba(pixels[3 * i], pixels[3 * i + 1], pixels[3 * i + 2]);

    // OpenEXR uses inclusive pixel bounds.
    Box2i displayWindow(V2i(0, 0), V2i(totalXRes - 1, totalYRes - 1));
    Box2i dataWindow(V2i(xOffset, yOffset),
                    V2i(xOffset + xRes - 1, yOffset + yRes - 1));

    try {
        RgbaOutputFile file(name.c_str(), displayWindow, dataWindow,
                            WRITE_RGB);
        file.setFrameBuffer(hrgba - xOffset - yOffset * xRes, 1, xRes);
        file.writePixels(yRes);
    } catch (const std::exception &exc) {
        throw std::runtime_error("Error writing");
    }

    delete[] hrgba;
}

int main() {
    float data [3*100*100];

    for(int y = 0; y < 100; ++y)
        for(int x = 0; x < 100; ++x) {
            data[(y*100+x)*3+0] = 0.f; 
            data[(y*100+x)*3+1] = 1.f; 
            data[(y*100+x)*3+2] = 0.f; 
        }

    WriteImageEXR("test.exr", data, 100, 100, 100, 100, 0, 0);

    return 0;
}

Execute bazel run //:Demo to generate the test.exr OpenEXR image file.

You can find the source code of this demo (and maybe an updated version of it) here.