Photo by USF student gets exposure on NBC’s Today Show with Hoda & Jenna

University of St. Francis sophomore Jaclyn Duske recently had her photograph of country music artist Josh Turner appear on NBC’s “Today Show with Hoda & Jenna,” according to a news release from the Joliet university.

“It was absolutely crazy. I just couldn’t believe it,” Duske said in the release. “I was working on a class project with my friends when I found out and said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m on the Today Show!’”

Duske had already photographed Dwight Yoakam when he appeared at the Rialto Square Theatre in August, thanks to USF professor Michael “Chester” Alamo-Costello, who had arranged the opportunity, the release said.

“I got a press pass and had to sign a media release,” Duke said in the release. “Per the terms of that release, I was only able to take photographs during three songs and could use only three pictures to accompany a story I wrote for The COMP.”

The COMP Magazine is the USF Art & Design Department’s nonprofit art, design and culture magazine. Alamo-Costello has arranged student shoots at Joliet and Chicago music venues since the start of The COMP Magazine in 2013, the release said.

Duske attended a photography workshop with the photographer for country singer Luke Combs a few months later. When she learned Turner was coming to the Rialto in November, she reached out to the Rialto and asked if she could photograph him, too. the release said.

“Thankfully, I was able to and I received a press pass,” Duske said in the release. “There was no media release this time around, but I was told that Josh Turner’s management team wanted to use some of my photos afterwards. So, I shot the show and sent my photos to his management team, who loved them and asked for permission to use them for promotional purposes.”

Duske received an email from Turner’s management team two days later. It included two screenshots of Duske’s photos that appeared on the Today Show. Duske keeps in contact with Turner’s management team in the hopes photographing future shows, the release said.

She started exploring photography with “a little Nikon CoolPix” her grandfather had given her while she was in the seventh grade, Duske said in the release.

“I enjoyed art and drawing, but I started taking classes in high school,” Duske, who is double-majoring in photography and graphic design, said in the release. “I stuck with it and it looks like it is now paying off.”

Duske photographs home athletic contests for the USF Fighting Saints. She also volunteers at Victory Reigns Therapeutic Riding Center in Peotone several days each week. She plans to work either as a concert or touring artist photographer or a sports photographer.

She decided to attend USF after she toured the campus and noticed a framed wood panel with praying hands burned into it. It was a piece her grandfather had given to one of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Mary Immaculate, USF’s sponsors, some years ago.

“I knew it was a sign that USF was the place I was supposed to be,” Duske said in the release.

For information, visit stfrancis.edu.