Anna Fuder was once a three year old with a FujiFilm plastic camera in her hands. After years of hardwork and dedication to photography, she is now a senior and Managing Photo Editor for “The Michigan Daily” at the University of Michigan.
Growing up Anna would always take photos with her toy camera. “She just kind of had an eye for things,” her father and eighth grade English teacher, David Fuder said. Anna got her first real camera from her parents for her eighth grade graduation which she used throughout her high school career.
Anna Fuder began practicing photography on her own time, furthering her “natural curiosity,” as her father said. While she was in high school at Parker, Anna Fuder took a photography class and also worked on an independent photography study with art teacher Katie Palmer who helped her gain technical knowledge and skills.
Palmer says she was just a support to Anna Fuder and that all of her accomplishments were a product of her own work ethic.
“I just provided whatever support I could but she really had the direction on her own,” Palmer said. “I think most really strong artists have that driving force that’s pushing them along. That’s not external. It’s internal. She definitely had that.”
The independent study included creating photo projects every week which eventually led to a photo gallery. Anna Fuder described this as her “first real consistent photography experience,” which further sparked her interest.
Anna Fuder also participated in “The Parker Weekly” as a photographer during her junior and senior years. By senior year, she was also serving as the Photo Editor.
Even after she got more interested in and knowledgeable about photography in high school, she never expected to go anywhere with it. Anna Fuder described photography as “something I just did on the side for fun.”
Anna Fuder graduated from Parker in 2020, right after the COVID-19 pandemic began. This meant that by the time she got to college for the 2020-2021 school year, “there wasn’t really anything going on on campus,” she said. During this time, the University of Michigan closed all of the on-campus dorms, which meant that she had to take all of her classes online from her home in Chicago. One day, as she was scrolling through the class of 2024 Michigan facebook group she came across a post that said that “The Michigan Daily” was hiring photographers. Fuder decided to apply and submitted a portfolio of her work. She interviewed and later found out that she had been hired for a photographer position at “The Daily.”
In the beginning Anna Fuder was only a staff photographer who would be asked to cover various events on the Michigan campus, however she was eventually able to work her way up to covering her main interest: sporting events.
Anna Fuder began to sign up to take photographs for sports games that needed to be covered, and as time went on she found more and more opportunities to take advantage of. Fuder has covered around fifteen to sixteen different sports ranging from field hockey, to basketball and baseball, to her personal favorite: football.
Anna Fuder grew up surrounded by passion for Michigan athletics, and in particular, their college football program. She recalled going to at least one game a year in the “Big House” which is Michigan’s football stadium. Even though she didn’t go to Michigan to pursue photography, David Fuder said that that was where his daughter found that “her interest for photography fell a lot more in line with shooting sports events.”
This year, she has covered many of Michigan’s football games and will likely be in Pasadena to cover the number one ranked Michigan team playing in the College Football Playoff (CFP) Rose Bowl against number four ranked Alabama.
Anna Fuder had only ever “messed around” photographing for Parker’s homecoming events before college, so for her, “that was something I never expected to be doing, and the fact that I could do that for “The Daily” is really cool,” she said.
In addition to sporting events, Anna Fuder has found many opportunities in covering news events. For example, in 2022, “The Daily” assigned her to photograph President Joe Biden in Illinois for a news article. “I was like, three feet away from Joe Biden taking pictures of him. That was kind of crazy,” Anna Fuder said. “The fact that I’ve been chosen to do all these things, and trusted to cover these events is really cool.”
In her senior year, Anna Fuder became a co-managing photo editor for “The Daily,” which is her current role. One of her responsibilities is to attend production meetings in the newspaper office every weeknight from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. During this time, she edits photos, creates captions, and adds them to articles. She is also in charge of telling staff photographers which events need to be covered.
Every Sunday, she also takes part in print production meetings which start at 2:30 p.m. and can go anytime until 11 p.m. These meetings include all of the sections in “The Daily” coming together to create the print paper. In addition, there are several times a week where she has to put together photographs for online breaking news articles. “It’s kind of a 24/7 time commitment because there’s always somebody that needs something from me or from my co-managing editor,” she said.
Anna Fuder has also worked as a photographer for several other publications at the University of Michigan. She participated in a fashion magazine for around a year, as well as the yearbook, which she still participates in. “Once I joined “The Daily,” I was opened up to other publications at Michigan,” she said, “The opportunities once you get into photography here have kind of just kept coming.”
In addition to the many opportunities that she has experienced through publications, Anna Fuder also has an internship with Michigan Athletics. Through this, she has helped to set up equipment and film sports games. Anna also has an internship with the Big Ten Network, an athletic conference broadcasting company, where she helps to set up equipment and oversees the broadcasting to make sure that everything runs smoothly.
Anna Fuder has been exposed to several other interesting opportunities, including a summer internship with the Major League Baseball association (MLB), which was a ten week experience in 2023 working at the MLB headquarters in New York City. During this time, she worked with the global media team on things such as media licensing deals and reading over media licensing legal contracts.
She worked with sports news companies such as ESPN and Fox as well as social media companies like Tik Tok and Amazon. In addition to that, she was able to give advice to the MLB media team from an outsider’s perspective. Anna Fuder also worked on reading over script proposals for MLB film content and licensing usage of players, coaches, and MLB stadium names. “My day to day tasks were definitely different depending on the day, and depending on what the global media team needed,” she said. “Mainly, I was working on more of the business side [of sports media].”
Anna Fuder also had the opportunity to shadow Michigan alumna Tracy Wolfson, a lead sideline reporter and sportscaster for the Nation Football League (NFL) on CBS. Every year, Wolfson offers a partnership program to all of the students in the Michigan communications department.
The fellowship is available to one student a year, determined through an application process of creating a video explaining why you should shadow Wolfson for a weekend and during a CBS NFL broadcast. The first year she applied, Anna Fuder was not selected, however, she was the runner up, and Wolfson’s assistant reached out to her to tell her that not only was Wolfson impressed with her application but she would be open to talking with Anna anytime.
Anna Fuder set up a time to talk with Wolfson over FaceTime. Wolfson encouraged her to apply for internships and to continue pursuing her interest in sports media. Anna applied for the fellowship the following year, in 2023, and was selected for the special program. She had the opportunity to shadow Wolfson in Buffalo, New York during the Buffalo Bills versus the Miami Dolphins NFL game.
From Friday to Sunday Anna Fuder attended several player and coaches meetings, shadowed Wolfson as she set up for game day, and learned about the graphics and camera work process. She also met Tony Romo and Jim Nance, the two CBS commentators. On Sunday she was with Wolfson on the sideline while she collected talking points from teams and injured players as well as when she interviewed players in front of the camera.
The following weekend, when Anna Fuder was in Minnesota covering a Michigan football game, CBS happened to be in Minnesota covering the Vikings versus the Kansas City Chiefs game. Wolfson invited her to shadow again and work as her assistant during the game. “She’s been a great connection and mentor for me,” Anna Fuder said, “so it’s really cool to kind of get exposed to that whole side of broadcasting and production, and it definitely has shaped my idea of what I want to do for my career.”
Even though she wasn’t always planning to go into photography, Anna Fuder said, “I’m definitely considering continuing photography after I graduate this spring. I don’t know what capacity, but it’s definitely something that I’ve discovered during college that I didn’t expect to.”
Anna is interested in a full time job within sports media but also taking the time to freelance and photograph sports games when she isn’t working her full time job.
Through her hard work and commitment to photography, Anna Fuder was able to gain several opportunities to which led to her deeper understanding of sports media. Between doing freelance photography, taking and editing photos for “The Daily” along with other Michigan publications, and experiencing several other forms of sports media, Anna has begun to consider turning what was once a high school hobby into a full-time career.
