Flying BOAC to Africa, as a ten year-old unaccompanied minor, first lit Richard Baker's fuse for wanderlust and photography.

After school at the British School of Brussels and an airport job in Southend he committed himself to photography, studying Documentary Photography at Newport College of Art in the mid-eighties. There, he discovered the alluring words colour and reportage. Recruited by the newborn Katz Pictures in 1988, as well as a spell with The Observer newspaper, he contributed to the mushrooming Katz agency and then the notable and now extinct Independent Photographers Group (IPG) until 2005.

Before photography's digital Reformation, he was crossing the divide between wry reportage and landscape using traditional 35mm, 6x6 and 6x7 film formats. Throughout 2006 he was still swinging between technologies, commissioned by some clients to use digital media and others, such as Guardian Weekend and Saturday Telegraph Magazines to record on film. But from 07 onwards he has predominately used Canon DSLRs while still mourning the loss of honest celluloid to the megapixel.

Over the past 20-years his corporate imagery has been presented in high-profile company literature and his photo-essays in the world’s image-led magazines and books. His most rewarding long-term body of work (though largely unpublished) was the recruiting of British Gurkhas in Nepal; a picture diary of his daughter's first year and the aftermath of 9/11 in America. More recently, he has come full-circle from the days of working in and out of airliners. Plane Pictures is a largely unpublished celebration of flying culture, 100 years after the Wright Brothers first powered-flight. The book, ‘Red Arrows,’ recounted his year spent photographing and writing about the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team which remains his own Finest Hour.

In 2007, he started the exhaustive editing of his online archives. He also started a blog (having just posted the 50th entry) that allows him to write at will on quirky photo-led topics and in 2008 saw the publication of the 'UK at Home' book that featured his journeys in the Isle of Skye, a place on earth this apologetic townie longs to return.

2009
Richard has completed work with Alain de Botton on 'A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary' published by Profile Books and enjoying the recent publication of de Botton's The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (Hamish Hamilton, 2009) on which he collaborated plus a new semi-colour edition published by Monocle. He is also preparing for a show at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and continuing personal work on The art of recession. Recently, he has started experimenting with Facebook and Twitter.

Photography from the de Botton and Red Arrows projects are available online and as Lambda digital prints. Press pictures are available for review purposes on request.

Red Arrows, the project
The much-asked 'how did Red Arrows come about?' is best described as a fluke .. (More)

Projects & Assignments
Paintball Games (1985); English Evangelism (1986); Guardian Angels (1988); Channel Tunnel (1989-90); Graffiti Boys (1989); One Germany (1990); Poll Tax (1990); Canary Wharf (1991); Cannes Film Festival (1992); General Election (1992); British Army (1993); Square Mile (1992-93); London's Lost Rivers (1993); English Seasides (1993); English Season (1993); Mazes (1993); Lisbon, City of Culture (1994); Rollercoasters (1994); Gurkhas (1994); Macau (1994); Atlanta, 100th Olympic City (1995); Oxford Street (1995); Côte d'Azur (1996); From Womb to One Candle (1995-6); Year of the Pier (1995-6); Hong Kong Handover (1997); Plane Pictures (1998-2003); These Colors Don't Run - After 9/11 (2001); Roadside Memorials (2000-1); Olympic Greece (2004); Monica Ali's Brick Lane (2005); Stratford 2012 Olympics (2005); Red Arrows (2004-05); Bath Spas (2006); Virgin Space Tourists (2006); Wingwalking (2007); Window-Watching (2007); UK at Home book (2007); Status Quo, for Guardian Weekend (2007); Veterans Aid, for Telegraph Saturday Magazine (2008); Ladies' darts, for Russian Reporter (2008); Bust - The Art of recession and You Are Here (2009); A Week at the Airport (2009).

Books
Places to Go, People to See (Mother agency, 2001)
Red Arrows (Dalton Watson, 2004)
Trafalgar Square (National Portrait Gallery, 2005)
UK at Home (Against All Odds Productions, 2008)
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (Hamish Hamilton, 2009)
A Week at the Airport (Profile Books, 2009)

Solo shows
(July 2009) Institute of Mechanical Engineers, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work; (2007) Calumet, Drummond Street, London NW1, Red Arrows; (2006) Metro Imaging, Clerkenwell and Chelsea: Red Arrows; (1997) Metro Imaging, Clerkenwell Hong Kong Handover.

Group shows
June 2009 Z33 Gallery, Hasselt Belgium, Werk Nu; 2007 M-real Gallerie Art, Finland; 2004/5 National Portrait Gallery, 'Circling The Square'; 2000 Mother Agency 'Places to go. People to see'; 1999 l'Oeuil sur Capitale: 24 hours in the life of Quebec; Fotofestival Naarden, 'World Cup'; 1999 Association of Photographers, 'Pictures of the Year'; 1995 Visa Pour L'Image 'VE Day'; 1986 Ffotogallery 'Members' Show.'

Awards
PoY (1996); World Press (1994); BIPP/Fuji Student Awards (1986); Canon Photographer (1983).

Archive
A selection of Richard's IPG and Katz Pictures archive is available at Corbis, Photoshelter and Alamy.

Lectures and presentations 2006
The Royal Photographic Society / Towergate Camerasure series:
Saturday 4th March, University College, Falmouth
Saturday 11th March, Flowerfield Arts Centre, Port Stewart, Northern Ireland,
Sunday 19th March, St Martin's University, Lancaster
Sunday 26th March, St Peter's Rooms, Church Street, Nottingham.
Wednesday 12th July, 'Cult Classics', Pleon Communications, London NW1
Saturday 12th August, 'Red Arrows', De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
Saturday 16th September (provisional), 'Red Arrows', Ottokars Hastings and Waterstones Eastbourne.

2007
February, Imperial War Museum, SSAFA/Sothebys auction.

(Updated August 2009).