 Brooks has photographed military and political leaders such as former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for "Time" magazine, President Asif Ali Zardari for The New York Times Magazine, Afghan President Hamid Karzai for GQ and Time, General Stanley McChrystal for "The Atlantic" cover story by Robert Kaplan, King Abdullah II and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.Her photographs have also appeared in "The New Yorker", "Smithsonian", "Newsweek", "U.S. News & World Report", "Vanity Fair" Italy, and "The Wall Street Journal"

Brooks was a Knight-Wallace Fellow in Journalism in 2012–2013.Her first book, "In the Light of Darkness", was released in September 2011. i