Will McBride

Will McBride was born in St. Louis and grew up in Chicago. He was educated at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, and the National Academy of Design in New York. He also took private lessons from Norman Rockwell. At the age of 24, he moved to Germany and began his career in photography. He eventually became a German citizen, and continues to reside there.

McBride rose to fame in the 1950s and 60s as a pre-eminent documentary photographer. His photo essays appeared regularly in various German magazines, and that work has established itself as a chronicle of the Kennedy and Adenauer years. He has always been a controversial artist. The sex education book Show Me, for which he was photographer, was initially received positively in Europe and North America by educators. However, due to strict laws enacted in the U.S. in the 80s and 90s, it was withdrawn from publication there, and is now considered child pornography.

In his autobiographical photo-essay book entitled I, Will McBride, he wrote:

"I am very interested in boys. Let there be no doubt about that."

But I don't meet them in train stations, nor in the men's lavatories. I don't go to places where I think there will be boys to see.

I don't ask boys to come home with me for pay. But when I see a good-looking boy, or what I think is a good-looking boy; slim, with well-defined bones and muscles, an intelligent face with clear eyes and a full mouth, high cheekbones, a not too large nose, a flat somach, a full butt and long legs, big feet and big hands, then I am charged with a lot of excitement.

It is this excitement that makes me work. I don't make love to boys, I make pictures and sculptures of them, a different way of loving...

But to my complete amazement, I discover that not all people admire my sculpture. In fact, many people are disturbed by it, not because my boys are not beautiful, but because they have a strong sexual component. My boys have sex-appeal and this is especially disturbing to a lot of people...

My sculpture is made not only to show that boys are beautiful and that they should be protected and respected as such, but to show that they are also sexual creatures, bursting with power...

I do not do pornography (I don't think). But some people think so, and have called the photographs that I have made to inform and educate obscene. In the United States, my books have been banned. Now that I have turned to sculpture, have I been making sculptures that will be banned too? I'll wait and see."[1]