Professional Experience:
2017-PRESENT. Nolasco Studios, Luxury Real Estate, Interior Design and Hospitality Photographer
2005 - 2017. Freelance Film Locations Photographer.
Education:
California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA— BFA Illustration 2002
Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut CA—AA Liberal Arts, AS Advertising Design 1999
Biography
ART Beginnings: Soon after graduating college, Cris Nolasco started marketing his mixed media watercolors creating what he called "contemporary portraiture" showing in local galleries and getting into art fairs in and around Los Angeles. His art highlights include being contacted by National Geographic School Publishing and getting a portrait of his wife published in 100,000 textbooks in 2006. In 2007 he won first place for a painting shown at the LA Lotus Festival which was purchased along with a few more original pieces by Emmy award winning actor, CCH Pounder. In 2010, Cris was contacted by the US embassy in the Philippines who later exhibited his original painting of boxing legend Manny Pacquiao in Manila for one year.
Film Locations: To supplement his art career, Cris worked in retail sales, corporate tv and film production, and later worked for a company that provided sports photography to high schools in Central California. This is the first time he began to photograph professionally. Soon after in 2005, he started his freelance photography career working with a TV and film locations agency based in West Hollywood, CA. For the next twelve years until 2017, he successfully photographed thousands of private residences, some of which were used in commercials, tv shows, and movies. This unique job gave him the opportunity to get a sneak peak into many spectacular homes and locations in LA. During this time he’s captured homes of CEO’s, politicians, producers, entrepreneurs, professional athletes and celebrities including homes owned by Cher , Rihanna, and Charlie Puth. Cris also loved that he got the opportunity to photograph incredible architectural homes built by the best mid century modern architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, John Lautner and Richard Neutra to name just a few.
Netflix: 2017 was a turning point in Cris’s photography career when he was asked by real estate entrepreneur Peter Lorimer to be a part of a traveling reality show that was produced by Netflix. “Stay Here” is an interior design makeover show where TV personality and interior designer Genevieve Gorder renovated eight vacation rentals across the US, from Seattle Washington to Brooklyn, NY. At the end of each remodel, Cris photographed the final design. Netflix licensed all of the images and he even appeared on all eight episodes that aired in 2018 and is still streaming presently.
Interior Design: Cris has also photographed for award winning interior design firms including Charles and Co., Windsor Smith, and the Pasadena Showcase house which was published in Architectural Digest. His interior design photography has also taken him overseas to southern France and to Baja Mexico where Architectural Digest published 19 of photos of one house in 2024.
Recognitions: Since 2013, Cris has provided photography every year of Beverly Hills’ world renowned shopping district Two Rodeo Dr. for client CBRE, the biggest commercial real estate services firm in the world. In 2022, Peerspace.com ranked Cris Nolasco ( Nolasco Studios) as the number one Real Estate Photographer in Los Angeles. His real estate clients include top agents from the brokerages in the country including The Agency, Carolwood Estates and Compass. Highlights include photographing Vice Media’s Shane Smith’s home in Santa Monica that sold for a record breaking 49 million dollars in 2021. In 2023 Cris was approved to become a preferred photographer for the World of Hyatt and photographed over a dozen hotels in California, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona in 2023. He’s published in Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, Dwell, Lux Magazine International, Mansion Global, Gray Magazine, California Homes Magazine, The French Cottage Journal, Robb Report, The New York Times, The New York Post and the LA times.