Previously she was a staff photographer at the Pittsburgh Press and at the Courier-Journal and Louisville Times in Kentucky. While in Louisville, she was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of desegregation in the public schools.Farlow has photographed numerous articles for National Geographic, including "Blackwater Country," "Swamps of Jersey: The Meadowlands," "High Stakes in the Bluegrass," "When Mountains Move," and "The Truth About Tongass."