Richard Hall was the eldest son of photographer ‘Professor’ Robert Hall and Ruth, nee Smith. He won prizes for the best stereoscopic photographs at the ninth exhibition of the South Australian Society of Arts in 1865, when apparently employed in his father's Adelaide studio. After his father’s death, Hall was in partnership with E.F. Edwards, initially based in Rundle Street, 1867-68, and later at Port Lincoln, 1871-72.