For this month's Meet a Redeye member we catch up with Ian Maxwell.

How did you get into photography?

I was promised a camera for my 11th birthday, which is now more than 60 years ago. I cannot remember why I wanted one – nobody in my family was interested in photography – but I do remember waiting impatiently for the great day to arrive. When I received back my first roll of processed film I was deeply disappointed with the results, an experience repeated many times over the following decades. But within a couple of years I had built my own enlarger (it was easy to purchase the parts in those days) and was doing my own processing. I’ve been at it ever since.

What inspires you?

The recollection that from time to time in the past I’ve produced some decent stuff; and the hope that my next batch of images will be better than the last. If you had asked ‘who’ inspires me, I would have said Fay Godwin, Daido Moriyama and William Eggleston.

The project I am currently working on

… is a book of landscape images. But I’m hoping that it will be different from most current landscape photography. I believe the tradition that descends directly from Adams and Weston ran into the sand some time ago, but is still driving most landscape photographers today. The beautiful image of the large-space landscape may inspire admiration but I think it tells us little or nothing about the land, or about our experience of it. I’m working on a small-space landscape, within our individual day-to-day experience, which is already familiar and yet is easily overlooked. The images currently in my Redeye portfolio are all from this project.

What is the best part of your job?

Not having one! I retired over ten years ago, and have enjoyed almost every moment since. It gives me time to do what I want, when and how I want. But I’m lucky in having a decent pension.

Advice to aspiring photographers

I’ve never been a professional photographer (I spent my working life as a lawyer) so it may be presumptuous to advise others. But I think too many people believe too many things without ever seriously considering them. So: challenge people’s ideas; defend your own work vigorously; and don’t get stuck in a comfort zone.