We were lucky to catch up with Cyndi Hardy recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Cyndi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I’m currently starting a new project to spread awareness about Ovarian Cancer. I had two friends pass away from ovarian cancer in 2019 and I was my mum’s full-time caregiver for 4 years while she had ovarian cancer; she passed away in 2021. Since the signs and symptoms are things that women go through on a normal basis, they are easy to miss. There is also no diagnostic test that exists for ovarian cancer. So awareness about the disease is extremely important for early detection. Most women are not diagnosed until later stages which greatly lowers their chance of survival.
I always loved to travel and so did my mum. Before she passed away I promised her that I would travel again, so I converted a van that I can live in with my dog as we make our way across the country. Seeing my mum and good friends go through their battles with Ovarian Cancer compelled me to spread awareness about the disease so what was supposed to be my travel journey has evolved into a mission. My mission is to spread awareness about Ovarian Cancer so that we can break the stigma and start working towards real solutions. Throughout the trip, I plan to visit with Ovarian Cancer survivors and women in treatment to help share their stories. I want to sit down with them, document their stories on video or in writing and do a personal portrait session so that they can feel empowered by their experience instead of feeling like victims.
My current plan is to leave Arizona in May and head to Dallas where I will be officially kicking off my journey at the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition’s Wellness Retreat. From there, I will head down to Austin first, then up to Iowa, Chicago, and Northern Indiana. From there I will head into Toronto and then over to Nova Scotia where my sister and nephew will join me to take care of my mum’s ashes. From there, my nephew and I are going to take 2-3 weeks to drive back to the Phoenix area, where I will work through the fall season and then start my trip again.
There will be lots of ways to help support my mission from sponsorships and donations, hiring me to take photos, joining my monthly membership on my site, purchasing fine art prints and digital images from my website or Etsy store, following me on social media and engaging with the content as often as possible or sharing and promoting my website and social media links.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I went to school to learn how to become a nature and landscape photographer. I started working for a wedding photographer during the first month I was in school and fell in love with telling people’s visual stories. Now I combine my love of telling people’s stories with my love of nature and landscapes.
I’ve been a professional photographer since 2001 and have photographed over 700 weddings, over 400 portraits, lots of headshots, and product and food photography. I love bold and vibrant colors, the watercolor pastel of the desert at sunset, the vast array of green in forests, and any shade of blue that the ocean has to offer. Color moves me, people in love fill up my heart, and preserving history is a driving force in my work.
I tell stories with my camera because it’s what I was born to do!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I was already helping take care of my father when my mum was diagnosed with cancer. Being my father’s part-time caregiver and the full-time financial provider was something I was used to by then, but adding in full chemo days and multiple doctor’s appointments started hurting my work since it was cutting into my editing and marketing time. That’s when I realized I need to make my business more mobile. I got rid of my desktop computer and got a laptop and started building my portable workstation. That gave me the freedom to work while waiting to see doctors or during the all-day chemo days or blood transfusions, etc. I’m not sure I would still have a business had I not made my workstation more portable.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Photos can help bring memories or feelings of a time or place to the person viewing them. I’ve seen a lot of loss in my life which has always been my driving factor for helping preserve memories for people to keep for years to come. I’m now adding in my mission of spreading awareness about ovarian cancer to my creative journey!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chillassadventures.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chillassadventures/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chillassadventures
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chillassadventures
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chillassadventures
Image Credits
Headshot – Jamie Moore Photography