Farlow has worked extensively in the American West for National Geographic. Her work includes a story and a book focused on public lands and, most recently, one that documented mustang herds. Her photojournalism has also documented the culture and climate change in the Alps, West Virginia's mountaintop removal mining and life along the Pan American highway. Themes of land and people are chronicled in her projects on the following regions: Alaska's Tongass forest, Okefenokee Swamp, Meadowlands, the National Road in the United States.

Farlow has worked as a staff photographer at the Pittsburgh Press and Courier Journal. For two years she chronicled Pittsburgh's changing downtown for the Heinz Endowments. She has received awards from Pictures of the Year International as well as a Pulitzer Prize for a group project in Louisville, KY.

Farlow and her husband, photographer Randy Olson, taught at the University of Missouri and continue to be a part of the faculty of the Missouri Photo Workshop. They live in Pennsylvania and Oregon.

Her IRIS Nights lecture will highlight Farlow's experiences and challenges on the diverse subjects of her assignments for National Geographic.