Jessica Bal is a junior majoring in English and Art History, and hails from the most boring town in Massachusetts (as voted officially on Boston's KISS 108 radio station). She is a newcomer to Exposure, having realized that journalism might be a serious possibility in the mysterious "real world" of careers and responsibilities after college. Tufts has provided her with many opportunities to combine her passion for art with her interest in communication. She is an editor for the Arts Section of the Tufts Daily newspaper and currently finds herself hopping around Boston covering anything from subway musicians to opera film festivals. She can also be heard on the Tufts radio station each week selecting tunes, hosting game shows, and interviewing anyone of interest in the local music/art community. She hopes this workshop will deepen her understanding of how words and images interact.

Erin Baldassari is from northern California but is currently based out of Boston. She began studying photography informally in 2001 and formally in 2006 at Tufts University. Erin is an active member in Tufts' photojournalism collective, EXPOSURE. In August 2007, she traveled with EXPOSURE to Kashmir, India with VII Photographer Gary Knight and former AP journalist Mort Rosenblum. She was also the Editor of Photography for Tufts' weekly magazine, the Tufts' Observer. This Spring, she will intern at the Somerville Journal. Erin is a Junior at Tufts and is majoring in Economics with a minor in Communications and Media Studies.

James B. Choca is a sophomore at Tufts University who is still undecided about his major, but is looking into Economics, English and Spanish. Growing up in Chicago, IL, James graduated from the Latin School of Chicago. At Tufts, James is the assistant sports photography editor for the Tufts Daily and an avid athlete. With a special interest in photojournalism and sports photography, he joined Exposure just this past semester and will be participating in his first workshop with the Boston experience in January of 2009.

Alison Coffey is a sophomore at Tufts and has been involved with EXPOSURE since the beginning of her freshman year. This past summer she participated in the EXPOSURE workshop in Cambodia under the guidance of VII photographer Gary Knight and former AP correspondent Mort Rosenblum. She is also a member of this year's EPIIC Colloquium on Global Cities, which has provided her with the opportunity to explore her interest in housing issues. As a Synaptic Scholar at the Institute for Global Leadership she is preparing to conduct research on this topic in Brazil, but hopes to gain a better understanding of the housing crisis in the U.S. during this workshop.

Aalok Kanani is a sophomore majoring in International Relations. He is interested in politics, human rights studies, and of course photography, and has had the opportunity to photograph in Thailand, Argentina, Tanzania, and his personal favorite destination, Texas. Aalok has studied fine art and documentary photography since he was 13, but was drawn to Exposure his freshman year because of his growing interests in photojournalism and human rights. Aalok is most interested in the role that photography can play in increasing awareness and bringing attention to important but often overlooked issues.

Meredith Klein is a sophomore at Tufts University hoping to double major in International Relations and French with a minor in Arabic. She came to college and found her passion for photography and photojournalism rather unexpectedly, and began photographing for the Tufts Daily, where she is now the Features Photography Editor. With her involvement with EXPOSURE, she hopes to learn more about the art and science of photojournalism, particularly as she finds it to be one of the most essential ways of promoting awareness through evoking emotional responses and rational understanding.

Alykhan Mohamed was born in London, UK and grew up in Boston, MA. He hopes to graduate with a BA in Architectural Studies and Russian and Eastern European Studies. His interests in urban planning and street performers led to his spending last summer as a co-director at St. James's Summer Shelter in Porter Square, one of only two entirely student run homeless shelters in the country. In the future, he would like to work in some capacity to improve urban life in the developing world and eventually attend graduate school for architecture. He was inspired to pursue photojournalism after attending a panel on Journalism for Tufts IGL "Dispatches" publication.

Erika Volchan O'Conor is a sophomore in Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences. She is planning to double major in International Relations with a focus on East Asia and International Letters and Visual Studies with a focus on comparative Chinese and Japanese film with a minor in Music. She has been a member of Exposure since her freshman year and looks forward to contributing to the organization during the remainder of her time at Tufts. Raised in Houston, Texas, Erika is interested in exploring the seaport city of Gloucester in the Exposure Winter 2009 Workshop under the guidance of photographer, Jim MacMillan. Being of Brazilian descent, O'Conor speaks Portuguese, understands Spanish and French and has studied Mandarin Chinese for four years. She is interested in the study of film, ethnomusicology, fine art, history and in producing documentary films.