Maria Lax's 'Stray Sod' reimagines Irish folklore through photography

Finnish photographer Maria Lax has published 'Stray Sod' with Setanta Books, a photographic series investigating the Irish folk phenomenon of enchanted patches of earth that lead travelers astray. Inspired by first-hand accounts from the Irish National Archives, Lax reimagines rural Irish landscapes through an otherworldly lens. The project explores narratives of sudden disorientation while traversing natural landscapes, often attributed to fairies or the fóidín mearbhall (stray sod). Lax relocated to Ireland for the project, spending nights photographing in West Cork and elsewhere. She used analogue distortion to create glitching, partially unrecognizable images, treating her photographs as an archive. The work reflects on digital remembering and the fragility of memory as oral storytelling traditions are replaced by social content. Lax notes that folklore allows a focus on the history of ordinary people, contrasting with written history's focus on power players. The series includes anecdotes from the National Archive, such as turning one's coat inside out to find the way home. 'Stray Sod' was published on April 28, 2026, as featured in The Guardian.