He is known in the Rochester community as the Calendar Man and can regularly be found set up beneath the towering kingfisher and squirrel glider of the town’s silos.
Soon there will be a platypus to join the two Campaspe native animals, after artist Jimmy Dvate started his third creation at the site on Monday.
Richard will be parked beneath Jimmy as he hangs from the side of the silo to create his third masterpiece in the town.
Half a century of photographic experience has Richard well positioned to judge what makes a good calendar image and his products have hung on the walls of the region for 13 years.
Arriving in Echuca at the age of 10, the now 77-year-old took up photography as a hobby after he was married.
“It was never anything too serious. I was actually a motor mechanic,” he said.
Richard completed his apprenticeship with Des O’Reilly in High St, the site of Echuca’s restaurant strip.
The calendar sales came about as an accident, when Richard was left with a 200-calendar order that fell through due to miscommunication with a community organisation.
“A bloke asked me for 200 of them, but someone had organised another person to do it,” Richard said.
“So I decided to set up in Rochester and sell them. It has gone from there.
“Now I share a portion of the profits with the silo committee. It works for everyone.”
Richard operated Echuca Bearings and Riverina Belting for three decades, his skills with the camera kept to after-hours and weekend work.
“I had always done a calendar for the business and family ones before I got caught up with the ski community,” he said.
“I was just giving those away in the initial stages.”
His 2008 calendar features competitors and boats from the Southern 80 event.
Richard doesn’t go to extraordinary lengths to produce his product, working from a home printer.
“I started on a Canon printer, but now have a Konica. It’s just a home printer,” he said.
His wife, Dawn, approached the information centre in Echuca several years ago in regard to placing Richard’s product at the site.
“They asked her for 20 on that visit and we’ve been selling them from there ever since,” he said.
His passion for the silo art features prominently, although there are a range of options for lovers of landscape and other subjects.
He has paddle steamer calendars, calendars featuring historic buildings, the ski racing version and, of course, silos from all over Australia.
“I sell a couple a thousand a year. It keeps me out of trouble,” he said.
Richard’s daughter Christine, and her husband, Simon Norris, have taken over the business and move about 250 of his calendars on an annual basis.
But he will always be at Rochester, mainly on Saturdays these days, for the people who buy one of his calendars every year.
“I even have people who ring me up now, my biggest (order) recently was for 500 calendars,” he said.
Richard’s RMI Images Calendars can be found in Bendigo, Rochester, Echuca, Moama and Mildura.
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