I was rather late entering the world of photography. I’ve always been creative, firstly hoping to be an illustrator, but never quite feeling like I was talented enough. I first seriously picked up a camera when I was 25, but once I started to enjoy the learning curve, I realised this was the perfect way for me to be creative and explore the world. It grew from there through different cameras, styles and has lead to so many experiences and encounters.

Our pick of the photos submitted for the fifth week of the 52 Weeks at Redeye challenge on Flickr - images responding to the title At Work. Chosen by Redeye's Paul Herrmann

Work is ever more behind closed doors. Each time you sign in as a visitor to a workplace, you probably also, without realising it, agree to respect the confidentiality of the company. There's a barrier for the resourceful photographer to surmount. But perhaps a bigger one is the move away from work being about the physical object to the growing intangibility of the service sector.

Our pick of the photos submitted for the fourth week of the 52 Weeks at Redeye challenge on Flickr - images responding to the title Taking My Time. Chosen by Redeye's Paul Herrmann

Redeye's Paul Herrmann gives his pick of the photos submitted for the third week of the 52 Weeks at Redeye challenge on Flickr - images responding to the title Dark Days.

What dark adventure. I think this struck a chord. Dark Days, bring them on. Perhaps the definitive maxim for us underemployed, glum, down at heel, rained-on photographers of the damp and dark north. Did I mention rain? I think there was some last month, even a little more than normal. 

Paul Herrmann of Redeye presents his pick of the photos submitted for the second week of the 52 Weeks at Redeye challenge on Flickr - images responding to the title Anonymity.

Redeye's Paul Herrmann presents his pick of the photos submitted for the first week of the 52 Weeks at Redeye challenge on Flickr - images responding to the title The Present.

I have chosen an image from the project 'The Rugged Places’. What draws me to this work, is the clear connection Atkinson has with her subject, and the sense of collaboration and shared voice she engenders to open out a narrative around the experience of growing up in a rural environment.

By all means go on a diet and learn to meditate, but why not choose something that will really help your work? Here are ten smart and straightforward New Year's resolutions that will benefit your photographic career, suggested by Redeye's director Paul Herrmann. Most of them will take a day or two, or less, to achieve.

All sorts of people appear in photographic portraits. Often we are given clues to the identity of the subject. Backgrounds can indicate character traits, give clues to profession or status. Sometimes we can see that the photograph is conceptual and the person we see is representing something we need to think about through their gestures, portrayal or stance. Perhaps identity has been stripped of its specific individuality and somehow conceptualized, prescribed to direct our thoughts to what the photographer is visually ‘up to’.

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

How did you get into photography?