No one will ever accuse Merkley??? of playing by the rules. He is a naked chick photographer and babbling blogger, who, according to the New York Times, "might have amounted to nothing in analog times." Recently, the man with all the question marks self-published 111, a hardbound collection of 111 mostly tattooed nude women who have lounged before his lens. In this latest installment of the Reverse Cowgirl Fast & Dirty interview series, I talked to the man himself about what it's like to be the anti-photographer's photographer.
Reverse Cowgirl: Why Merkley???
Merkley???: Two part answer: Merkley is my surname. Growing up in Utah, common swear words were very, very expensive, so to put me in my place, kids, teachers, clergymen, siblings & bullies would instead antagonistically nasal my own name at me as if it actually meant fuckwad, dipshit, or redhead freckled asshole. I resented their nosey tone so in 1991 I embraced it, you know, kinda like how black people call themselves "the N word" which makes it so when you call them "the N word" it doesn't hurt so bad. I'm basically just like Eminem, only older, beardier and way more N-wordy.
The "???" tacked on at the end comes from my Mormon upbringing. By decree, Mormon households, indeed most religious households worldwide, are required to foster three exclamation point wielding enforcement monkeys, one blind, one deaf and the other mute. Their blind-deaf-muteness in no way hinders them. In fact it aids them in the clubbing the crap out of you with their exclamation points as expressly commanded by the monkey handbook.
Notwithstanding 24 years of exclamation point calluses, one day after a particularly rambunctious beating, self-inflicted I must admit, three big bumps formed at the apex of my dome. But, unlike the hundreds of previous monkey-induced bumps on the head, these bumps didn't deflate. They grew. And grew and grew and grew.
13 days later, out popped three naked little question marked midgets, one with super powered X-ray specs, one with bionic headphones, and one with a really nice microphone. They are pictured on the front page of my website.
Long story short, they hooked me in with their sponge question marks and taught me to see, hear, and speak whatever the fuck I want. Bionically, even! More importantly, they taught me not to beat anyone over the head with rigid exclamation points when it's just as easy to hook them in with sponge question marks. And, even if you do beat someone with a sponge question mark, it doesn't hurt, so go for it.
So, anyway, the "???" is an homage to them. I'm making a book about all that.
RC: How did you get 111 naked chicks to lounge in front of you like 21st century odalisques?
M: I said I was making a coffee table book, and they lined up around the block. People can't resist coffee tables, you know, because of the caffeine.
RC: Recently, the New York Times deemed you a Flickr star who “might have amounted to nothing in analog times” but instead “mastered the Flickr photograph.” Flattered or insulted?
M: Well, ever since the New York Times fired Dan Rather for lying about inhaling pot and getting a hummer from the fat girl, I haven't really paid much attention to them. Katie Couric just doesn't do it for me.
Besides, I thought the "flickr" photograph was supposed to be of a tulip, baby, or your boyfriend on vacation. I'll get around to that eventually, I promise, but for now I'm a little busy taking pictures of naked girls with underrated groceries and gravitationally challenged pets.
RC: You self-published 111???. Why? And what was that process like?
M: After years of beating people over the head with DIY exclamation points, I really had no choice but to DI myself if I wanted to maintain my enormous street cred. But here are the fake Google map directions I'm going to pretend that I used.
1. Head north on Google to "overseas printing" .01 mi
2. Turn west at Lots-O-Crappy-Print-Broker-Websites Dr. 7.3 mi
3. Slight right at Samples & Bids Blvd. 10.9 mi
4. Take exit at Lowball Bids and Bad Samples. .01 mi
5. South to Book Store. 2 mi
6. Check signs for names of GOOD printers & publishers. .08 mi
6. North to Google 4.8 mi
7. Turn east to Hong Kong Bids & Samples 7 mi
8. Keep right at the fork, follow signs to Quality, Reputation & Competitive Price.
Paramount Printing Hong Kong
Seriously, never before has it been so completely possible for artists to connect directly with their own audience sans gatekeepers. The success of my hardheaded silliness should stand as an example of that. Of course the New York Times was right about one thing. I would have never, in fact, I refused "to amount to anything in analog times," standing in line as the meathead doormen made decisions about who got in and who didn't, so I am pretty happy that I found a side door cracked open to a really shitty dive bar called Flickr.
We artists live in the fuck-you-est of times.
I believe self-publishing is the future. Make a blog, and let it lead the way, posting all the beauty you possess inside. Trolls won't inflate your pride or make it easier. Let your commenters' pre-orders remind you how the web can be.
Pre-orders are great and should be part of the plan. Within two weeks of posting a pre-order PayPal link on my blog, I had made enough sales to completely pay for the entire run of 1111 books. I have been in the black since then, so it was totally worth it, and I'm just so glad I didn't give in to temptation and give all that black to someone else. Publishers only pay, like, six percent. DIY gets 100 percent. 100 percent beats six percent 106 percent of the time.
RC: Tell me a true story about you and a naked chick.
M: Oh, but I make pictures to tell those stories.
