Barry Michael Elz established prominent private commercial photography studios in New York City, Chicago, Boston and St. Louis over 45 years of a professional photography career (1973-2018) where he photographed primarily sports / athletes, lifestyle portraiture and fashion advertising for numerous national clientele such as Gatorade and Nike.

In June 1969 Elz received a scholarship to Washington University to continue his studies in fine art but was instead drafted and lost his desire to finish his degree at WU. Elz served three years in the United States Military during the Vietnam War. After release from the Air Force active duty and returning to his hometown of St. Louis, his career began as a freelance field photographer for the Baseball Cardinals in 1973 and assisting photographers at Famous Barr department store, which documents the transition from illustration to fashion photography advertising in St. Louis. He also taught a voluntary adjunct photography class for Washington University in 1985.

Elz was the exclusive photographer for Famous-Barr Department Stores (now May Co.), then located in the Railway Exchange Building. All of the photography created was freelance and expensed by Elz in his private St. Louis studios at: Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves (1975), Watson Road (1976), South Hanley Road, Clayton (1978-1980), Kingshighway Boulevard, Central West End (1984), and Lindell Boulevard (1985). No contracts were created with Famous-Barr/May Co., and Elz retained copyright to the images created.

Several of the models included in this collection were from St. Louis, as were several of the established models from Chicago including Cindy Crawford and Carolyn Kazen (who became Barry’s wife in 1990). Kathy Ireland, Eva Voorhis, Joan Severance were from New York agencies, who were booked and flown into St. Louis for the first time during this transition.

Elz’s work with super models such as Cindy Crawford and sports icon Michael Jordan led to the publishing of his hardcover Chicago Bulls portrait book which made the NY Times Best Seller and Wall Street Journal Best Seller list in 1998. Elz’ images have also appeared in publications such as, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Town and Country and Vogue.