She was trained in analytic chemistry before she decided to take up photography. Her early works, rooted in the documentary tradition, involved self-portraiture but more recently her interests have been dominated by formal concerns. Her practice continues to focus on the human body and landscape. While her works provoke conceptual questions, the artist insists that her interests are primarily visual. In her ongoing series, 'The New Painting,' Brotherus uses a camera to investigate the dilemmas that have challenged painters for centuries.