Barry Elz owned prominent, private studios as an independent professional photographer for 45 years, starting his career in his hometown of St. Louis in 1973. Then moved to Chicago and New York City in the 1980’s, working their during the same era as Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethrope and Annie Leibovitz, then solely in Chicago from 1990-2018 where he and Victor Skrebneski had his studio as well, sharing many of the same fashion models.
He has been published in numerous national publications including Vogue, Town and Country, Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated.
Barry photographed primarily fashion and athletes for high profile campaign clients such as Nike and Gatorade. He has worked closely with many illustrious models, including Cindy Crawford, Kathy Ireland, and actress Jennifer Beals and renowned athletes such as, Michael Jordan, Greg Norman and Alex Rodriguez.
His Collection of portraits of the Chicago Bulls Championship teams from (1996-1998), led to the publication of the book Chicago Bulls: Portrait of an Era, which became a Wall Street Journal and The New York Times National Best selller.