Gastonia photographer focuses on helping young succeed

COURTESY CURTIS LAWRENCE

Curtis Lawrence is owner and founder of Insight Photography and Insight Magazine in Gastonia.

Curtis Lawrence makes giving back to young people his mission.

Whether it is helping them to receive an internship at Insight Magazine and a scholarship for college or encouraging them to become the best version of themselves, he wants to see them succeed.

“So many people tell you what you can't be,” said Lawrence, who lives in Gastonia. “Who’s telling you what you can be?”  

Lawrence, 59, is owner and founder of Insight Photography and Insight Magazine located at Legacy Music recording studio in Eastridge Mall in Gastonia.  

“The Bible says, ‘be faithful over few things before he can make a ruler over many’ and that's where I’m at in this ruling stage now,” said Lawerence, an elder and preacher at Friendship Christian Church in Gastonia. “To give back to the younger generation [because] they have no pillars out here to give them any examples. You can tell them, but are you living what you [are] preaching?”

Lawrence, who was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Ocala, Florida, had an unusual path to photography. He majored in business at Montreat College in Charlotte and when his mother died at age 59 to breast cancer, there were no pictures of her.  

“God gave me the gift of photography that no other family will be able to go through that process because pictures tell the story,” he said. … “The living life of them even though they’re gone. You’d still be able to see the pictures to tell who they were.”

In addition, with by almost losing his eyesight as a teenager after a car battery exploded in his face, Lawrence views the gift of capturing pictures as God turning what the enemy meant for evil into something good.

Past issues of Insight Magazine, which launched in 2020, featured celebrities such as actress K.J. Smith, who appears on Tyler Perry’s TV show “Sistas” on BET, recording music artist Ceelo Green, and actress/singer Maria Howell, who has appeared on Lifetime's hit show “Army Wives.”

Being in the military taught him the importance of leadership and perseverance. He served 23 years in the Army serving as an airborne paratrooper at Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg and is executive officer manager UNC Charlotte’s Army JROTC.

“I let this generation know don’t be a quitter,” he said. “Quitters never win, and a winner never quits.”  


The Legacy Music space includes two recording studios, photography, podcasting, and rehearsal studios. Lawrence works with his friend Leon Craig, who teaches modeling classes in the Charlotte area. Lawrence photographs models for the fashion segment of Insight Magazine.

“We collaborate, we get the models and work with those kinds of things,” Craig said. “[Craig] helps me with my students, teaching and working with them. No matter what level of life you’re on, he’ll meet you where you are. He doesn’t mind helping. In other words, he’ll help the rich as well as the poor. If you hunger for success, he’s willing to help you get there.”

Lawrence, who has been married for 22 years, hopes to leave his legacy with his photography and magazine for his children – two sons and a daughter.

“Leave something besides debt, that they [are] able to see so that their legacy can go on through somebody else,” he said.  

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