\nWords by Avery Gregurich | Photography by Justin Meyer | March 10, 2015<\/p>\n

Justin Salem Meyer\u2019s job is to be a ghost.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a wedding, portrait, and commercial photographer. And when his subjects look into his camera, he is invisible. He carries thousands of photos of them around on memory cards, waiting until he is alone before reconvening with them all. His intention has always been to capture something memorable: a wedding dress, a silk tie, a family portrait.<\/p>\n

Now, Meyer wants to capture something else: the state of Iowa.<\/p>\n

Instead of people, his recent collections document the landscapes and pastimes of Iowa, from game sports such as trout fishing and pheasant hunting in Northeast Iowa, to public expanses like Jester Park in Polk County. \u201cWe love to prop up the things that we are passionate about, and I\u2019m really passionate about the state of Iowa and being outside in it,\u201d Meyer says. \u201cI\u2019ve become pretty good at finding amazing places that someone would look at my photo and say, \u2018That doesn\u2019t look like Iowa.\u2019”<\/p>\n

That sentiment is what drives Meyer, 32. \u201cMy goal has been to put out amazing work that make people say, \u2018I want to go to Iowa,\u2019\u201d he says. And not for Iowa\u2019s corn and pasture \u2014 that\u2019s not what Meyer is looking for. That\u2019s the Iowa everyone already knows. In over a decade as a photographer, Meyer has found that his home state has been pigeonholed into that familiar scenery. Now, he aims to capture the state\u2019s natural beauty to change people\u2019s perspective not only locally, but nationally, too.<\/p>\n

Take his photographs of trout fishing, for example. Even within the state itself, Meyer feels that there\u2019s little art either online or elsewhere about the sport. Instead, organizations like the Department of Natural Resources tell the familiar story<\/a> of \u201ca 4-year-old kid holding a bluegill,\u201d Meyer says. He feels the real story of the trout-fishing sportsman is lost. \u201cThat story hasn\u2019t ever been shown in the way that people know that trout fishing is beautiful in Montana,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a secret, but it seems pretty close to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a portrait photographer, though, the outdoorsy route is a change of pace.<\/p>\n

His change of artistic heart came after Meyer entered a few photos into the international Filson + Magnum Outdoor Photography Contest and won one of three first-place honors. As part of his prize, Meyer flew to New York to attend a masterclass with some of Magnum\u2019s prestigious photographers. They asked him to bring a portfolio of his outdoor shots, which, as a portrait and commercial photographer, he didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n