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darmon.bsky.social
Darmon
@darmon.bsky.social
230 followers 440 following 40 posts
Wanderer in real, virtual & imagined landscapes. Creating books, articles, images, music and travel experiences. Neurodivergent, PhD in socialist heritage. linktr.ee/darmonrichter
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darmon.bsky.social
Had a real treat at the weekend – 

Dubioza Kolektiv at the Exeter Phoenix.
October 6, 2025 at 2:32 PM
darmon.bsky.social
In the process of digging myself out of a bit of a hole. Are people mostly here these days? The online landscape feels so fragmented now, it's disorientating.

Here is a photo of my cat.
This is a photo of a golden cat called Hinko. He is very fluffy, and he has curled up to have a nap in the sun.
September 30, 2025 at 3:27 PM
darmon.bsky.social
This week I'm back in Bulgaria & doing some serious work cataloguing an archive of art & design magazines published from 1960-1990.

There are just under 1000 in total, mostly Bulgarian, but also from Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and the USSR.

More details / photos in the article below.
The cover of Българско Фото 1984-10 features the striking Modernist design of a nuclear power plant control room. Bulgarian socialist monuments and mosaics are frequently featured, often including design sketches and artist interviews. Various issues of Радио (Radio) magazine from the 1960s-1980s. My quality control manager (an absolutely beautiful golden cat named Hinko) sleeps on a stack of magazines in the sun.
April 7, 2025 at 2:28 PM
darmon.bsky.social
Didn't have a freak snow storm on my bingo card for April.
6am, pre-dawn, and a thick layer of snow lays over the neighbourhood. Later, in daylight, the wind blows eddies of snowflakes around the space between concrete housing blocks. Over on the main street, cars drive with headlights on through the driving snow. Parked cars beside the road are layered with heavy white blankets.
April 7, 2025 at 11:14 AM
darmon.bsky.social
Heartbreaking to see the destruction in Myanmar. This is Mandalay Palace – my photo from 2017, and now.
Mandalay Palace at night. The palace is surrounded by a moat, and both the water and sky are black – while illuminated in red and yellow across the horizontal centre of the image are the palace walls and towers, and their perfect reflection in the water below.
March 29, 2025 at 8:14 AM
darmon.bsky.social
I often think about those new arrivals in the UK, stepping outside the airport, first time on British soil, and coming face to face with Luton in the rain.
A construction site at Luton airport. There’s an impression of concrete and cranes against a grey sky, but it’s raining too much to make out any detail.
February 26, 2025 at 9:48 AM
darmon.bsky.social
Thursday evening in the Druzhba neighbourhood of Sofia, Bulgaria.
A series of socialist era housing blocks are lit up against the dark blue sky. Street lamps glow yellow, tracing a curving path that cuts across a snow covered park. On the horizon, smoke rises from power plant chimneys.
February 22, 2025 at 10:44 AM
darmon.bsky.social
#FolkloreThursday "Wassail!" comes from the Old Norse, "Ves heill," and means something like: "Be healthy!"

In the cider-producing regions of England – such as Devon, Somerset and Herefordshire – Wassailers visit orchards in midwinter to banish evil spirits and call for a healthy harvest.
The wassailers form a long procession after dark, many of them dressed in green, with painted faces, or adorned with fairy lights. In this photo, the procession is led by a man who dances with an accordion around an apple tree, while others beat drums behind him. As part of the tradition, slices of bread or toast are often hung from the branches of apple trees. This image shows triangles of toast dangling from a tree in the orchard. After the procession, revellers drink cider and a troupe of Morris dancers performs for the crowds. Here the dancers are preparing, dressed in green, black and white rag coats (the colours of the Devonshire flag), and wearing hats topped with floral bouquets and fairy lights. A row of costumed musicians perform the music for the dances – two of them beat drums, three hold accordions, and one man plays a trombone. Inside the circle is a Morris dancer, caught in this image as a green-and-black blur of motion.
February 20, 2025 at 11:44 AM
darmon.bsky.social
First night back in Sofia for a while.
A snow covered tree in front of a government building. It is night, and yellow tinted lights illuminate the architecture in vertical stripes.
February 19, 2025 at 11:01 PM
darmon.bsky.social
It’s time to get on with my first Big Exciting Thing of 2024 - editing this new book I’ve just gone and written. Highlighters at the ready.
A hefty printed manuscript of my first draft. Ready for scribbling on with multicoloured pens.
January 16, 2024 at 12:43 PM
darmon.bsky.social
"Is the cure to male loneliness journeying into the desolated heart of the Zone?"
November 6, 2023 at 7:32 PM