He began his career on local newspapers moving quickly on to the national and international newspapers. Richard’s early work was mainly news, sport and features working for the award-winning regional daily the Western Morning News.

      During the 1990’s he was contracted by a London based publisher to photograph Premier League Football mainly for the magazine     market with whom the company jointly owned major football club magazines, Richard became the official magazine photographer for Chelsea, West Ham, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, and Crystal Palace, other titles included World Football Magazine, Football Italia, and Rugby World.

He photographed top-flight football in stadiums and training grounds all around Europe and the UK including European and domestic cup finals. At this point in his career, he was driving 70,000 miles per year and clocking up as many air miles. Eventually, the sporting contracts with the clubs changed hands and Richard turned his interest back to the West Country concentrating on the regional

and national news.

      His images have appeared on the front pages of every UK national newspaper but throughout his career, his love of animals and wildlife photography has become internationally acclaimed publishing calendars in the USA and Canada.

His photographs of animals resulted in his own six-part TV series called ‘Richard Austin’s Animal Magic’ which went on to win the Royal Television Society’s Regional family entertainment programme of the year in 2007. He has also published five books under the titles of ‘Richard Austin’s Animal Magic.’

Richard has over 4,500 images with his London agent the world-renowned Rex Features. He has contracts in place for greeting cards distributed throughout the UK.

Born and bred in Lyme Regis Richard’s knowledge of the town is demonstrated through his pictures of Lyme in all its glory.