While it may be cliché, pictures truly can be worth a thousand words. A single photograph can capture the emotion and energy of a story in a single frame. For Communication Rhetoric major, Alex Jurkuta, photography is more than just a passion, it's a form of expression. Through his lens, he has found a way to connect his love for visual storytelling with his academic work, turning what began as a hobby into a platform for impact at Pitt and beyond.
Visual communication–photography, videography, and graphic design–is a core discipline students in the Department of Communication explore in their studies. For Jurkuta, the department’s flexibility provided the perfect foundation to pursue his creative ambitions.
“I knew I wanted to pursue photography when I got to Pitt, and communication seemed like a great way to be able to explore that,” Jurkuta said. “The degree is general enough where I'm not pigeonholing myself into one thing while also getting to explore ideas and fields I am less familiar with.”
Jurkuta’s passion for photography, specifically sports photography, began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During the COVID pandemic, my school started to livestream sports games, which I got involved with,” Jurkuta said. “That experience made me consider the possibility of pursuing a career in sports and also just made me want to do more work in the creative media space.”
Throughout the rest of his high school years, Jurkuta seized every sports photography opportunity he could, knowing that continued practice and building a portfolio of work samples would position him for future success.
“In my senior year of high school, I did a youth apprenticeship where I basically just followed all of my high school sports teams around the state and took photos,” Jurkuta said. “I also did some freelance work for a local paper to get some more experience. Once I got to Pitt, all the work and projects I did in high school put me in a really good position to keep pursuing sports media and photography at the collegiate level.”
Since being at Pitt, Jurkuta has worked as a Photography Intern for Pitt Athletics, a Staff Photographer, Visual Editor and now Layout Editor for The Pitt News, and as a Photojournalism Intern for Pittsburgh Public Source. Each of these experiences taught Jurkuta the importance of working as part of a team with a common goal of producing high-quality, informative work. His work with The Pitt News was especially formative in helping him understand the important balance between adhering to style and standards while still maintaining individuality as a photographer.
“Something I really tried to make a priority working in the collaborative environment of The Pitt News photographers was reinforcing consistency,” Jurkuta said. “It’s important to have a set standard of how a photo's going to look, but then as long as the photo meets that standard, be as creative as you want to be. Make sure the colors are accurate, make sure the exposure is accurate–and then go crazy.”
This leadership experience at The Pitt News not only exposed Jurkuta to managing collaborative photojournalism environments, but also equipped him with the tools to develop his own photographic identity. He had the opportunity to express this individuality and gain experience capturing the essence of a sports team this past summer as the Photography Intern for the St. Cloud Rox, a collegiate summer league baseball team.
“One of the things that was really cool about my internship with the St. Cloud Rox was that I was the only photographer there, so I kind of got to design everything the way that I, in a perfect world, would want it to be,” Jurkuta said. “I was given a ton of access to the team and to the field to execute the shots I wanted to get, so it was really important for me to build relationships with the players to establish trust and create an environment where I was able to capture great moments.”
That creative freedom and close access to the team laid the groundwork for a deeper, season-long engagement. It introduced Jurkuta to new challenges and pushed him to think differently about his approaches.
“Working with one team provided a unique challenge because you’re working 40 games in a row, and have to find new creative ways to do the job,” Jurkuta said. “To help with this, I had a bucket list of shots that I wanted to get, like a celebration or a really good diving catch, and things like that. Seeing that checklist continue to be checked off throughout the summer was a really big motivating factor.”
As he continues to seek new opportunities to take photos for sports teams, newspapers, or just for personal enjoyment at Pitt and beyond, Jurkuta urges other students interested in pursuing a career in photography to take every single opportunity offered to them and to advocate for themselves to get those opportunities.
“Don't be afraid to send the email or Instagram DM. The reason why I'm involved with Pitt athletics is because I was an annoying freshman and sent an email to a couple of people there and just kind of stuck around,” Jurkuta said. “So, show up and do everything as if your career depends on it, not because it always will, but because I have gotten opportunities from one-off games, which just shows how important it is to treat every opportunity as if it will lead to more. Overall, just always say yes. I shoot basically anything I can. I shoot concerts for Haven, sports for Pitt athletics, I do photojournalism and I do senior portraits. Any opportunity you can get is a good opportunity.”
Jurkuta’s path reflects what the Department of Communication hopes to cultivate in its students– the ability to think critically and creatively, and translate passion into purpose.