"Richard lives for three things - his family of his wife Amanda and three girls, his photographs and his whales (well not actually his whales - the Earth's whales.) Oh I should also mention plants and perhaps especially flowers. OK, four things.

Of course he is manic - in pursuit of any of these things his mind is utterly focused and he is deliberately out of control. He can be inspired by a word,a look, a deed,a personality or even a breath of air. Mania and creativity, in the sense of 'originality' (ie: deriving from one's origins, not from ones intentions) are fine and all too frequent partners. His photographs will tell you why this partnership is essential more than my words ever can.

The only way we can observe discipline in him, apart from his six hundred push-up and almost daily several miles of swimming in the sea, is to study the crafting of  his final photographs: the end result of his darkroom time is a profound expression of the ideas he didn't know he had at the moment of exposure (of both himself and his film) to the subject. If we could all be in this condition of availability to and intense concentration on our subjects we might all be able to produce work which maximised our ability to create a finished product as completely wonderful as his.

He is fit. With a standing heart rate of thirty four and an imagination rate of one hundred and ninety six or thereabouts his artistry is free to reign. What more can I say? To see Richard's work is to know what we all seek".