In 1959, she switched to studying photojournalism at the Institut für Bildjournalismus in Munich where she remained a student until its closure in 1960 due to the death of its founder Hans Schreiner.
[3] In 1969, she photographed adventure playgrounds in Amsterdam leading to her first photo series published in Abenteuerspielplätze: ein Plädoyer für wilde Spiele.
[2] Her second book project documenting the curtains at the Piazza San Marco in Venice, realized in collaboration with the architect Katharina Sattler, reveals the influence of Ed Ruscha's seminal photobook Every Building on Sunset Strip.
Marking her longest project, which began in 1985 and ended in 1994 with the permission to photograph the Vavilov Institute in St. Petersburg, Ewiger Weizen formed part of the exhibition "Zur Nachahmung empfohlen!
Schulz-Dornburg first achieved international recognition with the series Sonnenstand, which documents hermitages along the Spanish section of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.
Dismayed by the destruction brought about by the First Gulf War, she sought to turn to a time and place of a harmonious coexistence and reciprocal inspiration of different cultures.
Other notable series include views of the ancient city of Palmyra before its partial destruction by ISIS, of Mount Ararat captured from Armenia across the border to Turkey, of abstract monumental sculptures in Kronstadt, and of abandoned architecture of the Hejaz railway in Saudi Arabia, among others.
This documentary approach results in serial typologies of her subjects, which led to her being stylistically associated with the Düsseldorf School of photography prominently represented by Bernd and Hilla Becher.
[13] Schulz-Dornburg's methodical research on each subject matter[2] provides her photographs with intentionality, and their minimalist clarity enriches the seemingly objective stance with symbolic layers, reflecting the inherently political nature of her work.
[18] Although Schulz-Dornburg retired from actively photographing new projects, she continues to revisit her archive and to exhibit her work in different venues, including hitherto unknown series and prints.