Excerpts of an interview with Kim Crenshaw published in “The Secret to Their Success” by Emily A. Colin:

“In third grade I knew in my heart of hearts that I wanted to be an artist. In Jr. High I got into photography and really started loving it. I had a friend that had a dark room in his basement and I played around with photography a lot. I eventually landed at Durham Technical Institute thinking I would go into drafting and maybe, from there, work my way into architecture. It was there that I received my associates degree in architectural drafting.”

“Then, through a series of ‘life events’ I ended up at Memphis College of Fine Arts. There I double majored in graphic design and photography and loved every minute of it. When I graduated in 1987, I did some soul searching. I just listened, I guess, to my heart and said, ‘What do you really, really love?’ And the two things that I truly, truly loved were being around kids and photography. So, I looked around Memphis and its photographers and realized that I didn’t care for the way they photographed children, it was very stiff. You know, it was their idea of how a child should stand – and placing their feet just so and their hand just so. I wanted to do something different; I wanted to capture their own perfect personalities. That was 16 years ago and I am still guided by that belief.”

“I have a very strong belief that God gives every single one of us gifts – and that when we are in tune with our gifts, wen can really truly fell that magic of the creative process of just being one with God and feeling like it’s something even beyond ourselves. So, I think when I’m doing shoots that I’m looking through the camera and I’m seeing images that I know are just going to be perfect! And everything-it’s the lighting and the subject(s) and the place, wherever we are, the environment, the creativeness-is just magical. Part of the extreme joy I get is being able to capture that essence of that person, that personality. It’s not just about recording an image, but it’s about really recording who they are. I consider that a gift. And when I feel like that’s really happening-when I’m working with people-that’s kind of an ideal, I guess.”