Immediately after photographer Bo Scheeringa had set foot on Irish soil for the first time in 2013, she felt at home. The connection with Ireland was nourished by the solitude of the Irish peatlands, the beauty of the wild coasts and the Irish themselves - who are generally praised for their kindness.
Many Irish in the countryside are still cutting turf and use it as fuel. During one of her walks, she met a family loading sods of turf on a trailer. She asked if she could take a picture and they willingly stopped to pose. This photo turned out to be the birth of her photo project.
In 2019, Bo went back for a year, to photograph the process of peat extraction. ‘Peat’ tells the story of the importance and the beauty of Irish peatlands and the transience of ancient Irish peat cutting traditions.
