Photographer
Website / Facebook / @cisforcristal / VSCO
Cristal is a proud Queer Chicana feminist photographer. After getting two higher education degrees, she fell into wedding photography after seeing images of non-traditional couples doing things their own way. She felt a strong pull to document folks making decisions about what love looks like to them, and not compromising their values for societal standards, so she picked up a camera and found herself shooting a friend’s queer wedding 8 years ago. Since then, she got married and had an intimate wedding with her wife, complete with a backyard BBQ and Gavin Newsom as the officiant; chose to focus her business, Cristal Veronica Photos, solely on LGBTQ folks and people of color; and always feels super honored when folks seek her out as a photographer based on her niche. Cristal’s work has been featured in Buzzfeed, F*Yeah Gay Weddings, H&H Weddings, and Catalyst Wedding Magazine. Cristal has served as a speaker at The Family Narrative, a family photography conference/retreat, and the Real Life Conference for woman and non-binary photographers in Canada. In June 2019, Cristal received the “Heritage of Pride – Pride Creativity Award” from SF PRIDE. In addition to photography, Cristal has worked in higher education for 16 years. Cristal lives in San Francisco with her wife Shimina and furkid/rescue pup Magdalena; enjoys being a Tia; is constantly thinking of future tattoo ideas and places to travel; wishes Tupac was still alive and making music; and is always craving sushi and donuts.
