He studied at the Polytechnic of Central London, where he was taught by Victor Burgin, and graduated with a BA (Hons) in Film and Photographic Arts in 1980 and a Masters of Philosophy. In 1991, he received the Camera Austria Award for Contemporary Photography and is currently Professor of Photography at the Royal College of Art. His photographic work proposes a re-interpretation of the still life genre and a reflection on the object as sign. He uses a large format camera to quote genres and images, also using animals as a recurrent subject that complements the stillness of objects. The camera is commonly a metaphor for the eye. Richon proposes that it is also a metaphor for the mouth: a devouring eye that absorbs its subject to turn it into an image. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in many public collections, including the V&A Museum; the MAM, Paris; Museum Folkwang, Essen; the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; the Brooklyn Museum and the National Gallery of New South Wales, Australia. A monograph of his photographic work, Real Allegories, was published by Steidl in 2006. He is represented by Ibid Projects, London.