Business/Organization: Uptown 11 Studios
Member Since: 2025
Committee Participation: Advocacy Committee
Background: Sam Hodgson is the founder and creative director of Uptown 11 Studios, a creative agency that helps San Diego’s community-minded brands run their own news operations.
Before founding Uptown 11 in 2024, he served as the Director of Photography and Video at The San Diego Union-Tribune, where he helped grow a team of visual journalists and the newspaper’s digital-first storytelling approaches and culture. Before joining The U-T, he was a regular contributor to The New York Times.
In 2019 and 2020, Sam produced an Emmy-award-winning documentary about the campaign finance scandal that upended the political career and family dynasty of Congressman Duncan D. Hunter and the race to replace him in California’s 50th congressional district.
He spent most of 2016 covering the presidential election for The New York Times, traveling to 20 states and more than 80 cities. He was embedded on and off for months with the Bernie Sanders campaign at the height of his rise and traveled extensively covering both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s bids for the White House.
Before becoming a freelance photojournalist in 2011, Sam spent five years working for the online, nonprofit news source Voice of San Diego as the sole staff photographer. He focused on documenting quality-of-life issues and underserved populations in San Diego.
Sam graduated from San Diego State University in 2006 with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Political Science. Associated Students awarded him the Presidential Leadership Award for his rigorous coverage of the campus community.