Michael Enfield was born in the Nation's Capital, and grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The story goes that he was drawing before he was walking. At four months old he was wearing a beret. He painted murals at Parkside Elementary School and drew funnies for Leland Junior High School. He attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School where his artistic flare was recognized by his art teacher, Easu Motovitch, who was himself was an accomplished painter. Motovitch, enthusiastically referred him to College.
He attended Pratt in Brooklyn, New York. Although painting and drawing were his initial interests, his professors persuaded him to pursue more marketable disciplines, specially in light of the exuberant, emerging commercial art market in The City. He majored in Advertising Design & Visual Communications and minored in three areas of undergraduate work: journalism, photography and film-making. He excelled in 35mm, black & white photography—how it could be used to illustrate advertising and editorial artwork. He studied alongside many notable artists, among whom were, David Croland, David Palladini, Ted Shaine and Robert Mapplethorpe . In 1968, he received a BFA undergraduate degree from Pratt Institute's School of Art.
Enfield went on to study art history and painting in Nice, France at the Academe De Ete and completed post graduate studies at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. in Secondary School Art Education.His first job out of school was as an assistant photographer at 5th Avenue’s, Steinbicker Houghten Studios. He set up back drops and lights, processed rolls of film and styled settings for upcoming takes. One of Houghton's clients for whom he regularly helped out was Cosmopolitan Magazine.His pay was poor at best; and, soon he initiated a new job search with the help of the a former Pratt placement counselor and future, internationally renown, talent agent, Rita Sue Siegel. With perseverance and a lot of luck, he landed an assistant art directorship at Young & Rubicam Advertising on Madison Avenue. Y R was the largest ad agency in the world at the time. He assisted on a variety of accounts, a few of which were—Travelers, Gulf Western and Bristol Meyers. He developed an appreciation and special understanding of the emerging ad business. In the Agency scene of the 70’s, creativity was king and commercial artists like Peter Max, Art Kane and Andy Warhol, were heroes like Rock Stars that could make millions of dollars. Becoming a great artist and a living legend was a real possibility for many in those days... not in the summer of '71. He moved from his Greenwich Village apartment back home to the Washington, D.C., area. He had been recruited for induction into The Vietnam War. After reporting, however, he was never ordered to report for duty.
In a second floor flat on Prospect Street in Georgetown... [content regarding early career, publications, and teaching] ...on another occasion for the venerable, National Geographic Society.
While in Helsinki, Finland, he photographed a Spring fashion catalogue... [content regarding international work, exhibitions, and Time Life project] ...The record was a big hit with the publishing company and so was he.
Briefly, Enfield worked as the Creative Director for the former, Earle Palmer Brown Advertising in Washington, D.C.; but he found the pressures imposed upon him by volume-driven, supervisory sales representatives to be creatively stifling.
With the downtown retail boom of the late 80’s and the emergence of trendy new shops like Georgetown Leather Design, *the late but not least"—Door Store* and Britches Of Georgetown to name a few, he won over a multitude of new patrons. By cleverly depicting their merchandise in clever scenarios he dramatized its relevance to their target markets. His models were ordinary people whom he came across in everyday life. With a natural ability to draw, he relentlessly directed; though. They appear in his pictures to be so naturally postured that one would think that he had just happened by with his camera and by some lucky chance caught them in an act of genuine product appreciation. His refreshing approach to promotional photography was wonderfully exhibited in a series of print ads commissioned by Ritz Camera and published in the Washingtonian Magazine. An abundance of hotels and restaurants too, have benefited from his professional finesse: The Vista International, The Clarion (now, Best Western),/various Holiday Inns, Bread & Chocolate, Inc., Chadwick’s Restaurants, Kramer Book and many more.
The explosive real estate market thereafter opened new doors of opportunity for Enfield Grafik Design & Production. Enfield photographed and, with equally as effective creative assistance, wrote and designed a variety of promotional pieces for many notable builders and developers of the time. Southern Management commissioned the firm to promote their newly renovated planned community, Summit Hills, in Silver Spring, Maryland. EGD&P produced 100,000 brochures for the retail shops in the towering, historical Pavilion at The Old Post Office in Washington, D.C.Sigal Construction*. Carr America retained Enfield to portray and promote the unique significance of their projects.
Computer graphics enabled Mr. Enfield to provide evermore, memorable creative work. Since High School he had wanted to become a painter like Norman Rockwell. He revered his draftsmanship and humor. In fact, he enrolled in College with the goal of becoming an artist like him. Now, with software like Adobe Photoshop he could compose pictures with the freedom and fancy of an illustrator like this one. With passion and perseverance, he mastered electronic manipulation in all areas of advertising print production. He fabricated photo composites—putting people, clouds, moons, birds, planes and whatever in places they had never been. He sharpened, blurred, blended, distorted and positioned subject matter more or less as he pleased. His enhanced, imaginative images have been featured with complimentary quips and text in some of the most effective and memorable promotional art ever created to date.
Over the years a staggering number of his ads have appeared in magazines and newspapers throughout the Country. Among the many clients that he has represented during this time have been: The Washington Post Newspaper, Transcontinental Granite, Media General Productions, WNVC Television, Chuck Levin's Music Center, Andriana Furs, Arundel Federal and Commerce Bank, That's Amore Restaurants, Faxworld, Upscale Resale, The Washington Sports Club's— Aspen Hill Club, Tischer BMW, Jim Coleman Infiniti, Graffiti Audio-Video Stores, Statland & Katz Financial Services, Champion Billiards,The Four Seasons Hotel, Maurice Electric, Nash Floors Carpet One. He designed and illustrated a dazzling, millennium calendar for the well known, American Plant Food Company of Bethesda, Maryland.
A few other of Enfield's clients over the years have been: MacUpgrades, Bethesda, MD, finewine.com, Gaithersburg, MD, Thai Restaurant Of Shirlington, VA, Papa’s Knish, Long Island, NY, Dr. Wayne Hickory of Washington, DC., Memphis Bar-B-Q, Herndon, VA, Johnsons Flower & Garden Centers, Kensington, Maryland, Up Against The Wall, Georgetown, NW, Wash., DC. , the nationally acclaimed, local leader in medical cosmetic laser therapy Dr. Robert Adrian, Glory Days Grill Restaurants, AT&T Wireless, Watermark Cruises, Annapolis, Maryland and Artistic Gardens, Rockville Maryland and Safeway , Inc. Pleasanton, California.
Recently, the highly regarded, Washington Business Journal noted ad work developed by Enfield for the gifted cosmetic surgeon, Dr. David Berman of Sterling, Virginia; the article addressed Mr. Enfield's plan to relate the doctor's world renown restoration of John Bobbitt's severed penis to other traditional cosmetic surgery practice procedures.
The special effectiveness of EGD&P is appreciated and patronized by customers all over the country. It services clients in New York, Baltimore, Richmond and as far away as Los Angeles on a regular basis.
Enfield's unique ability to provocatively portray and popularize subject matter in print advertising has worked wondrously for many medical doctors specializing in cosmetic enhancement . Who can forget Enfield’s Washingtonian ad created for Dr. Steven Rotter? The physician is portrayed standing, arms folded, proudly smiling in a wing of The National Gallery of Art. Examples of his cosmetic surgery work are exhibited in the massive, ornate frames all around him. The scenario was aptly captioned, "Part Appreciation". Enfield's graphic design and production medical messages suggest that "going to the doctor is fun, even fashionable". Headlines like "a bust-line for the coastline", "win by a nose", smiles ahead, "smile in style" (in Vogue Magazine), "capitaleyes", "bonds you can bet on", "Can you smile without cracking up?" and "shave time" coupled with complimentary , dramatically effective photography entice and thoroughly captivate todays', particularly affluent, college educated, "baby boomers". Mr. Enfield has developed a unique professional niche in Washington, D.C. where family*, cultural vitality and a consistent, robust economy have supported his activity for more than twenty years. *Immediate family: Twin Daughters: Charlotte Grace Enfield, Juliette Sarah Enfield, Son, Henrik Demian Enfield; Spouse, Anna Maria Karewicz, Architect
Enfield, recently completed a commission for Safeway, Inc., Pleasant Hill, California; he was commissioned to photographically portray its recently renovated store in Kensington, Maryland; designed to emulate the many, boutique sized, intimately detailed and illuminated, health food markets throughout the country; but, on its traditionally recognized... grandiose, "supermarket" scale.
His work has been exhibited at The Montgomery County Executive Office Building, Barnes & Noble Bookstores and by The Corcoran Gallery of Art. The Gazette Newspapers called him " The Norman Rockwell of Photography"; Channel 8 Television, upon interviewing him called him, "the most prolific ad artist in The Nation's Capital."
© Michael Enfield, 2026; All Rights Reserved.