One of the highlights for me about photographing people, is having an opportunity to give prints to the wonderful people I photograph across the world. It was such a joy to give prints out to many of the people I photographed on my first trip to Ethiopia in 2023. Batcha, the Kara woman here, probably had the biggest impact on me of everyone I photographed in “23″. The simple act of giving her these photographs cemented our relationship and even though we do not speak the same language, we have a bond and hopefully, I will see her again, but if not, she will always know that she was seen and highly appreciated by me. When a person gives me the honor of capturing thier image, I love to give it back to them. Likewise, about one third of the people I photographed in 2023 were not to be found. Floods had moved camps, unrest and fighting in the area of the Mursi tribe had displaced them. In most cases, I was able to leave the photographs behind with people who recognized them and hopeful one day they will find their way to them. That being a reminder that what we photograph one day, may not be able to be photographed any other day, ever again. In this rapidly changing world, every image is a piece of history, but to the person in the photograph, it is so much more.
BIO:
Born in Sevierville, Tennessee in 1957
1976 Graduate-Art Institute of Atlanta.
Cyndy worked throughout the United States after graduation with jobs such as, Photographer for the State of Tennessee and Official Photographer for the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville TN. With a great list of references from the Fair in 1983, Cyndy moved to Washington DC and operated Paine & Waters Photography specializing in political PR on Capital Hill and documentary photograph. She has photographed 5 U.S. Presidents. While photographing the opening of Dollywood in 1986, Cyndy met a Los Angeles film crew, Johnson/Klein Productions. They invited her to join their production company. She made the move and enjoyed 6 years of working in LA photographing many of the people from the “Woodstock Generation” such Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Woopie Goldberg and many other celebs.
She often photographed children in challenging situations, using her images to expose their needs. Cyndy traveled to Kenya on a spiritual journey in 1995. She was overwhelmed by the lack of education, food, and physical care many women and children faced causing her to step out from behind her camera and develop The Orbit Village Project, Inc. In July 2025 the project celebrated it 30th birthday with many guest from Tennessee and the USA traveling there for the celebration. Today, the project is quite large and feeds, cares for, and educates approximately five hundred children and youth, and focuses on helping hundreds of families survive and rebuild from a broken generation. She works between Sevierville and Nairobi, Kenya for most of the year and takes a few photographic trips annually.
In recent years Cyndy has returned to her original love of photographing people as she finds them in their daily lives. She first traveled to Ethiopia in 2023 and was amazed with all the different people groups there and their willingness to be photographed.She returned in July to continue working on a show called “The Ethiopian”. This will be an ongoing focus and collection that will grow over the next few years. The first showing of The Ethiopian, curated by Elizabeth Avedon opens September 5th, 2023 the The Emporium in Knoxville TN.
Cyndy also loves adventure and travels to many exciting places to photograph. “I love the way the industry of photo workshops has developed over the years making great trips available to small groups of photographer to travel to places they might not want to travel along to experience the world and high adventure. I’m traveling to Antarctica at the end of this year for an adventure with a few friends filled with penguins and icebergs. What photography adds to my life just keeps getting better. “
Cyndy’s work from Africa was published in FAWCO’s Inspiring Women Online Magazine fall of 2020. She was featured as one of 16 American women photographers working around the world. Along with regularly having images hung on the walls of SxSE Gallery, in Molena, GA, SxSE published Cyndy’s work in an Article The Land Of The Maasai, in the Dec-Jan 2022 Issue of SxSE Photomagazine. Her work is regally selected as part of gallery shows and several of her images have won awards.
She was featured in Volumes 1, 2 & 4 of the book series How I Created This, A Celebration of Images From The Road in 2021.
She has adopted 3 Kenyan children, all now adults, and has her first grandchild still making her home both Sevierville and Nairobi, Kenya.
Email: cyndybwaters@mac.com
Webpage: cyndybwaters.smugmug.com & OrbitVillage.org
Facebook: Cyndy B Waters & The Orbit Village Project
Instagram: CyndyBWatersPhotographer & AretEnkeraSafaris
Resume/CV (if applicable): Cyndys-ResumeCV.pages
