• Elsa creates intricate artworks from thousands of hand cut photo fragments
• Her slow process means she creates just a handful of pieces each year
• South Africa’s natural world inspires her and guides her themes

After completing a Bachelor's degree in fine arts at Stellenbosch University in 2009, Elsa Gouws Smit went on to study for a Master's in business at the International University of Monaco. She returned to South Africa to pursue a corporate career. "It was a period of developing my resilience and intellect," she says. But in 2019, Elsa answered an inherent call to work with her hands, and became a full-time artist. Over time, she has developed her own distinctive visual language. Elsa photographs textures in nature, prints the images on archival paper. She uses micro-dissecting scissors to cut the photos into miniature pieces, which are meticulously reassembled into new scenes that look like paintings. She works from memory alone, creating an impression of a personal experience. “My work explores the human instinct to collect, record and preserve moments in time out of fear of forgetting, or of mortality,” Elsa says. “Each artwork almost functions as a taxidermy of time.” The result is a visually rich composition that takes months to complete.