About Molly Oleson
Molly Oleson is a print and multimedia journalist with a background in fine art and extensive experience in writing, photographing and editing for various newspapers and magazines.
After earning a B.F.A. in Painting from Boston University's College of Fine Arts, and after studying creative writing and journalism, Molly began to combine her two passions: writing and art.
She served as Editor of City College of San Francisco's award-winning Etc. magazine, where she also wrote feature stories, photographed and contributed to design. Molly has written for a San Francisco neighborhood newspaper, contributed photography to the San Francisco Chronicle and Nomic magazine, contributed to Juxtapoz magazine and interned at Sierra magazine, where she wrote weekly blogs for the magazine's Green Life section, and where she continues to freelance.
Molly's reporting has led her to farms in Australia and New Zealand, ashrams in India and fishing villages in South Africa.
Currently, she is an assistant editor, writer, photographer, multimedia producer and illustrator at Mission Local, a hyperlocal news site in San Francisco's Mission District.
Molly aims to find creative ways of combining writing, art, photography and video to tell compelling stories of fascinating people and places.
Education:
- University of California, Berkeley
- August 2011 - May 2013
- Boston University
- September 1999 - May 2003
- B.F.A. in Painting, with a minor in Art History
Published Stories:
- Cheers
- Brink magazine
- Molly Oleson's story about the 500 Club, a dive bar in San Francisco's Mission District, appears in the "Bay Backdrops" section of Brink magazine's 2013 issue.
- Mission Music: Jared Marchildon's Favorite Song
- Mission Local
- Molly Oleson illustrates Jared Marchildon for a Mission Local series called, "Mission Music."
- Fate of Adobe Bookshop Still Up in Air
- Mission Local
- A story about how one of San Francisco's beloved independent bookstores teeters on the edge of extinction, and what the community is doing to save it.
- Mission Music: Nate Allbee's Favorite Song
- Mission Local
- Molly Oleson illustrates Nate Allbee for a Mission Local series called, "Mission Music."
- A Teen Becomes a Casualty at 19
- Mission Local
- Molly Oleson illustrates a story about a young man who was shot to death in San Francisco's Mission District.
- The Propositions: Mission Local Pulls Out the Stops to Explain the Props
- Mission Local
- Molly Oleson illustrates an explainer on the 2012 election propositions.
- Photobooth Celebrates First Anniversary
- Mission Local
- A photo essay on the first anniversary of San Francisco's Photobooth, the world's only tintype and Polaroid portrait studio.
- The Mission Swoon
- Juxtapoz magazine
- Molly Oleson, class of 2013, writes for Juxtapoz magazine about artist Swoon's new piece of public art in San Francisco's Mission District (pictured on the cover.)
- The Mission's Beloved Swoon, Part III
- Mission Local
- The story of the restoration of street artist Swoon's piece in San Francisco's Mission District.
- Jenny Aguirre: Becoming Who I Am
- Mission Local
- A photo/video piece on the transformation of Jenny Aguirre from man to woman.
- The Mission's Beloved Swoon, Parts I & II
- Mission Local
- The story of the disappearance and restoration of one of the Mission's most beloved murals.
- Challenging an Urban Myth
- Mission Local
- When Ana Rivero Rossi yells “go,” Todd Hanson darts out into traffic clutching a pair of hand-painted hearts tied together by a shoelace.
- My Mission: Peter Cordova, Artist
- Mission Local
- A photo/video profile on Peter Cordova, a developmentally disabled artist at Creativity Explored in San Francisco's Mission district.
- New Year's at the Make-Out Room
- Mission Local
- Humberto pushes open the door to the Make-Out Room at 9:03 p.m. and assumes his position on 22nd Street. He looks left toward Bartlett, then right toward Mission Street.
- Explore: Haro Strait, U.S.-Canada Border
- Sierra magazine
- A first-person account of kayaking among killer whales in Washington's San Juan Islands.
- MAPP: A Smashing Party
- Mission Local
- A photo/audio slideshow of San Francisco's MAPP (Mission Arts and Performance Project) event, for which galleries, cafes, gardens and living rooms were transformed to showcase art, poetry, live music and cabaret.
- Holiday Cuts
- Mission Local
- A multimedia piece on a free haircutting event in San Francisco's Mission District, which combines my photographs with a fellow reporter's video.
- The 500 Club: A Daytime Dive
- Mission Local
- Slater stands under a purple umbrella while Cherry Bomb paces back and forth, in bright blue rain boots. A flickering neon “500 Club” sign stabs a drizzly gray sky.
- Mustache Mayhem in the Mission
- Mission Local
- Wearing pinstriped pants and a “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” T-shirt, Paul Santagata, 34, stands at the bar at Double Dutch, sipping a vodka Red Bull, and looking trendy.
- "Dia de los Muertos Procession a Celebration of Life"
- Mission Local
- A photo slideshow of the Mission district's annual Dia de los Muertos procession.
- "A Mission Halloween: Kids + Imagination"
- Mission Local
- A photo slideshow of the kids of Halloween in San Francisco's Mission district.
- Heads Up: Free Art Thrown From Bikes
- Mission Local
- They yell at targets on the street, and ring their bike bells until they make eye contact. It’s the polite thing to do before hurling rolls of brightly colored paper at people.
- Advice to Young Artists: Adrian Arias
- Mission Local
- An interview with artist and poet Adrian Arias.
- Drunk on Words at the Book Bar
- Mission Local
- Writer Francisco X. Alarcon steps into the newest, tiniest, most mobile bar in the Mission, ready for a drink.
- Fleeting Art Makes Lasting Impression
- Mission Local
- Neck massages. Apple fritters. Sultry bedroom eyes. Big dudes in tiny coats. The laughter of my beloved. Expressions of love for these things and more — scrawled on airline baggage tags and tied to a fence on Valencia at 19th — fluttered on windy nights for over two weeks at the end of the summer.
- The Mission's 9/11: Arab Americans Affected Most
- Mission Local
- It all happened while she was in the shower.
- Royal Flush
- Sierra magazine
- An interview with Sasha Kramer, executive director of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL). Kramer talks about her mission in Haiti: to transform waste into resources using composting toilets.
- "Triathlete Meets John Muir" to Trek 4,500 East Coast Miles
- Sierra magazine
- John Davis begins a human-powered journey from Florida to Canada to raise awareness about wild places, and the animals that need them.
- Painting Mountains White to Combat Climate Change
- Sierra magazine
- A Peruvian inventor aims to save the Andes with a little bit of paint.
- An 86-Year-Old Tweets to Save a Lake
- Sierra magazine
- "Today's sunshine was great for seeing Mary Lake at her best," reads a recent tweet by 86-year-old Bob McMinn. "The surrounding forest was reflected perfectly in her placid waters."
- A Coral Reef of Human Proportion
- Sierra magazine
- An artist uses sculpture to save coral reefs.
- Tom Graham Walks Every Street in San Francisco
- The San Francisco Chronicle
- Molly Oleson contributed two photographs to the San Francisco Chronicle, including a photograph that ran on the cover of the Datebook section, and the cover of the early edition of a Sunday newspaper.
- "San Francisco's Walking Man"
- Etc. magazine
- Molly Oleson served as editor of Etc. magazine for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 issues. Her feature story, "San Francisco's Walking Man," can be found on page 20 of the Spring 2010 issue.
- "What About Ms. Bob?"
- Etc. magazine
- Molly Oleson served as editor of Etc. magazine for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 issues. Her feature story, "What About Ms. Bob" can be found on page 8 of the Fall 2009 issue.
Awards:
- "What Jess Would Like": Excellence in Multimedia Reporting (May 2013)
- Molly Oleson received this award in honor of Jessica Lum, a 2012 graduate of the J-School. Lum was admired for her photography and multimedia pieces, and, after her untimely death in January of 2013, her friends wanted to create an award for multimedia work that Jess would like.
- Dorothea Lange Fellowship, UC Berkeley (April 2013)
- Molly Oleson received UC Berkeley's 2013 Dorothea Lange Fellowship, an award in memory of one of the most outstanding documentary photographer's of the 20th century. Oleson will receive a grant to complete a documentary photography project in the summer of 2013.
- Journalism Association of Community Colleges State Convention Award (April 2010)
- Won second place in the state of California for a "Magazine Profile Feature" on a transgender music professor at City College of San Francisco.
Work Experience:
- Assistant Editor
- Mission Local - San Francisco CA ( August 2012 - May 2013 )
- Molly Oleson currently works as an assistant at Mission Local, a publication in San Francisco's Mission District.
- Photographer
- Nomic magazine - San Francisco CA ( February 2012 - )
- Contributing photographer for Nomic magazine, a digital magazine celebrating the people behind the businesses of San Francisco (scheduled to launch in the spring of 2012.)
- Reporter
- Mission Local - San Francisco CA ( August 2011 - )
- Currently working as an arts and culture reporter for Mission Local, a hyperlocal news site covering San Francisco's Mission District. Work includes writing stories, producing multimedia pieces, taking photographs, illustrating stories, helping to design the print edition, and serving as an assistant editor when needed.
- Editorial intern
- Sierra magazine - San Francisco CA ( August 2010 - February 2011 )
- Wrote weekly blogs for the magazine's Green Life section, contributed to the print edition, and fact-checked pieces for the print edition.
- Editor
- Etc. Magazine - San Francisco CA ( August 2009 - May 2010 )
- Edited City College of San Francisco's award-winning Etc. Magazine, wrote feature stories, and contributed to design and photography.
- Contributing writer
- The Westside Observer - San Francisco CA
- Wrote feature stories for a San Francisco Neighborhood Newspaper Association newspaper.
Skills:
-
Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Soundslides, TypePad, WordPress, Storify, Microsoft Office
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