Honestly, if you saw it on a shelf today, you’d probably do a double-take. Or maybe call the police. That’s the legacy of Will McBride Show Me, a book that remains one of the most polarizing artifacts of the 20th century. Published in 1974 as Zeig Mal! in Germany and hitting the U.S. via St. Martin's Press a year later, it wasn’t some underground zine. It was a mainstream attempt at radical honesty.
A sex education book for children. With actual, explicit photography.
Today, that sounds like a legal nightmare waiting to happen. Back then? It was the peak of the "Flower Power" philosophy, a time when people genuinely believed that if you removed the shame from the human body, you’d end war. Will McBride, an American photographer living in Berlin, didn't just want to teach kids where babies came from. He wanted to visually deconstruct every taboo society had spent centuries building up.
The Man Behind the Lens
Will McBride wasn't some random guy with a camera. He was a classically trained artist. He actually studied under Norman Rockwell. Imagine that for a second—the man who painted the ultimate "wholesome America" was the mentor to the guy who would eventually publish the most banned book in U.S. history.
McBride moved to Germany in the 1950s after serving in the Army. He fell in love with the raw, rebuilding energy of Berlin. He became a star for Twen magazine, where his grainy, black-and-white style defined the European "cool." His work was always about the body. When he teamed up with psychiatrist Helga Fleischhauer-Hardt to create Show Me!, he approached it with the same documentary eye he used for student protests or jazz clubs.
He used real families. His own children were involved.
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The goal was simple: show life as it is. No airbrushing, no coy diagrams of "the stork." Just people.
What Was Actually in the Book?
It’s hard to overstate how graphic it was. We’re talking 125 photogravures. There were pictures of children exploring their own bodies, parents together, breastfeeding, and teenagers going through puberty. The text, written from a child’s perspective, accompanied images that left nothing to the imagination.
Some people saw it as a masterpiece of liberation. Others saw it as child abuse.
In 1975, the Washington Post called the photos "beautiful, assaultive, grotesque, and seductive." That’s a lot of adjectives for one book. Meanwhile, the New York Times was much harsher, labeling it a "child-abusive joke." This wasn’t just a debate about art; it was a collision between the old world and the sexual revolution.
The Legal War That Changed Everything
For a few years, Will McBride Show Me was everywhere. You could buy it at your local Waldenbooks. But then the legal tide turned. In the mid-70s, prosecutors in places like Massachusetts and New Hampshire brought obscenity charges against the book.
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Guess what? They lost.
Early on, judges consistently ruled that the book wasn't obscene because it had "serious educational value." It was protected by the First Amendment. But the victory was short-lived. In 1982, the Supreme Court case New York v. Ferber changed the rules. It allowed the government to ban "child pornography" even if it wasn't technically "obscene."
St. Martin’s Press saw the writing on the wall. They couldn't afford to keep fighting in court. They pulled the book from the U.S. market, not because they thought it was wrong, but because they didn't want their employees going to jail.
In Germany, it lasted longer. It even won awards from church organizations in the beginning! But by 1996, the "moral majority" pressure got too high there, too, and it was taken off the shelves. By then, it had sold over a million copies in seven languages.
Why Do People Still Look for It?
You can’t just go to Amazon and buy a new copy. Collectors pay hundreds, sometimes thousands, for original editions. But why?
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- The Aesthetic: McBride’s photography is objectively stunning. It has a "lived-in" quality that modern digital photography can't touch.
- The History: It’s a time capsule of a specific moment in human history when we thought we could "fix" psychology through total transparency.
- The Taboo: There is a natural human curiosity about things that are forbidden.
McBride himself never backed down. Until his death in 2015, he defended the work. He thought the "aggressive men" who run the world were the problem, not a book about bodies. He famously said that if young men lived out their sexuality freely, they would become peaceful.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Reader
If you’re interested in the history of censorship or the work of Will McBride, here’s how to navigate this complicated topic today:
1. Study the Archive
The Will McBride Archive is located in Bristow, Germany. If you’re a serious student of photography, looking into his estate—which includes 65 years of work beyond just Show Me!—provides a much fuller picture of his impact on "personal documentary" photography.
2. Contextualize the Controversy
Understand that the book was a product of the Anti-Authoritarian Movement. To judge it purely by 2026 standards is to miss the point of what they were trying to achieve (and what they were rebelling against). Read up on the Twen magazine era to see the visual language McBride was speaking.
3. Look at the Influence
McBride paved the way for photographers like Nan Goldin and Wolfgang Tillmans. If you like raw, intimate, "boundary-pushing" art, you’re looking at McBride’s DNA.
4. Check Local Libraries (In Europe)
While banned or unavailable in many places, some public libraries in Germany still keep copies on hand as historical documents. It remains a "special collection" item that requires a specific request to view.
Will McBride Show Me wasn't just a book; it was a dare. It dared society to be as open as its creators. Whether you think it was a brave step forward or a massive mistake, there’s no denying it changed the way we talk about the limits of art and education.