HARIKA MADDALA
About
Harika Maddala (pronouns: they/she) is a visual journalist based in California.
Maddala graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor’s in Photojournalism and a minor in International Relations. Born and raised in India, Harika earned a BA in journalism and transferred to SF State in 2019 for a four-year bachelor’s degree.
As an Alert Curator at Hearst Television, Maddala monitors breaking news and provides timely and accurate information to the network's affiliates and digital platforms.
Before Hearst Television, Maddala worked as a Catchlight Local Fellow and a Report for America Corps Member, while working as a Bay City News Staff Photojournalist covering Stockton news. Maddala spent two years documenting Stockton and its surrounding communities as a local journalist, highlighting the region on the map for everything it represented. Maddala also volunteered for a year at Stagg High School, teaching journalism to the students.
Maddala is fluent in English, Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada, and moved to the U.S. from India at 19. They use their creative writing, photography, and videography skills to document the stories of marginalized and underrepresented communities.
In 2022, Maddala documented the homelessness crisis in Stockton as a research fellow at the Starling Lab for Data Integrity, co-founded by Stanford University and the University of Southern California. Using Web3 authentication tools, Maddala created a verified “time capsule” of images to combat misinformation, showcasing my ability to innovate while upholding journalistic integrity.
Maddala has been photographing since age 14. They have had their photos displayed at various galleries, including at a TedX exhibition in India in 2016, at Yerba Buena Arts Gallery in June 2019, and Samy’s Camera in the Spring of 2019 and 2020.
As a staff photographer and photo editor for San Francisco State’s newspaper, the Golden Gate Xpress, they covered police violence, prison transfers and environmental racism.
Maddala placed first in the Feature Photo category and third in the Spot News Photo category for Report for America's Annual Local News Awards 2023.
Their story on the destruction of key evidence in Sean Monterrosa's killing placed her eighth in the country for Hearst Journalism Awards in the multimedia category.
In the General News Photography category, they were a Finalist and Region 11 winner in the 2020 National Mark of Excellence Awards.
More of their published work can be found on Local News Matters, SF Chronicle, CalMatters, KQED and Golden Gate Xpress.
You may reach out to Maddala at by.harika.maddala@gmail.com, for assignments or work.