meet barbi

Since 1993, Barbi* Macon has photographed St. Louis' best and brightest.  Known and loved by many for her effusive personality and high-brow (read: childish) sense of humor, Barbi is best known for her portraiture and has a knack for capturing the essence of your loved ones in a photo. (Don't worry – she'll gladly photograph your teenagers too).

Barbi has shot presidents**, professional athletes, CEOs, newborns, politicians, models, and her own “adorsable" offspring… and yet, at the end of the day, there's a special place in her heart for child and family portraiture. Her work has been featured in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Ladue News, countless yearbooks, holiday cards, living rooms, fridges, and hearts around town.

A few notes on working with Barbi:
She'll call your babies delicious (please - don't be concerned) and threaten to eat their toes (at the time of this site's publication, no toes have been reported missing). She'll give you grief for not giving her an authentic smile, do something to make you ACTUALLY smile.... and will subsequently congratulate herself on a job well done.  (“Oh, GOOD ONE, Barbi!")

A glossary of terms:

  • Delicious: Adorable.  Often synonymous with chubby-cheeked.

  • Mush: Put your face closer to the other person's face.  This will help Barbi fit more of you in her photo frame.  It also helps to show that you like the person or people with whom you are being photographed.

  • Took a hit with the ugly stick: Striking.  Gorgeous.  You are the Helen of Troy... of St. Louis.  You're a regulation hottie.

* As documented by Cady Macon

**Think: More photo booth than Wilkes Booth.

I have always loved photography as a way to express the way I see the world and the people in it. Capturing faces and moments frozen in time makes me smile. I volunteer for the Lumina Project at BJC as time permits, and along with my family, I support Best Buddies Missouri. I am a wife, a mother of four, a mother-in-law, a grandmother of two, and a dog owner and lover. My family and my friends mean everything to me. I am blessed.