Her work is predominantly portraiture, but she has worked as a photo journalist in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and continues to shoot reportage and documentary styled series. Her style of portrait photography is closer to journalistic, using natural light exclusively whenever possible, attempting to achieve an intimacy which comes from a spontaneous approach to her subjects. The sense of sheer presence which Van Elk’s work captures is not limited to her human subjects- one can sense it in her photos of a deserted landscape or an empty room.