for the theater promotions of the film,Berlin, Sym-
phonie einer Großstadt(Berlin, Symphony of a Big
City) by Walther Ruttmann, 1926.
From 1926 on, Umbo was supported signifi-
cantly by his friend, Paul Citroen, who encouraged
him to devote himself entirely to photography.
Umbo proved to be an important promoter of the
ideas of theNeues Sehen(New Vision) in Germany.
Through his reportages and solitary shots he
became a pioneer for modern photojournalism
and the prevalence of the new ‘‘photo-language.’’
Together with Simon Buttmann he founded the
photo agency Dephot (Deutscher Photodienst
GmbH) in 1928. It was here that the first combined
text and photo reportages appeared—to include
Umbo’s famous ‘‘photo-typographies’’ (a combi-
nation of photography and typography). Until a
state enforced closure in 1933, Dephot was respon-
sible for studio photography and reportage photo-
graphy. Its specialties included dance, vaudeville,
theater, and movie theater. The pictures were pub-
lished in numerous German magazines such as
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, Mu ̈nchner Illustrierte
Presse,Ko ̈lnerische Illustrierte Zeitung,Das Illu-
strierte Blatt(Frankfurt),Uhu,Dame,Neue Linie,
Scherl’s Magazin, and Koralle. Umbo combined
experimental and artistic trends of the avant-
garde with an established documentary reportage
as well as unusual portraits.
Not only in contract work, but also with personal
shots during the 1920s and 1930s, Umbo used light-
ing to demonstrate two different principles of for-
mation: as appropriate he used either strong
contrast between light and shadow or well-balanced
lighting. Above all he understood how to playfully
employ perspectives, photo clippings, and shadows
to cause optical confusion for the viewer through
the use of simple motives. One of the best examples
is the photograph from the bird’s-eye perspective,
Die unruhige Straße(The Restless Street), 1928, with
its ‘‘uncanny shadows,’’ which also catches one of
the substantial design elements of expressionistic
films in Germany. This photo’s special charm is
that it sways the viewer to concentrate on the long,
life-like shadows, rather than on the objects that
make the shadows. The effect of combining real
elements with fantasy abstractions is occasionally
suggestive of surrealist techniques, such as those in
Salvador Dali’s paintings.
In 1935, Umbo was still experimenting with per-
spectives when he used a fisheye lens with a 180
field of vision—originally developed for meteoro-
logical purposes—for his series:Die Wolkenkamera
sieht sich auf der Erde um(The camera in the clouds
takes a look around the earth). The art of visual
deception can also be found in a completely differ-
ent manner in Umbo’s photo report about the
unheeded life of store-window mannequins. A
selection appeared in the Frankfurt magazine,
Das Illustrierte Blatt, 1929. The mainly unclothed
figures—seeDrei Mannekins(Three Mannequins)
or Schaufensterpuppen (Store-window Dolls), all
from 1928/1929—are stored in a semi-private area
of a warehouse and appear life-like despite their
doll-like positions. Umbo continued his project of
‘‘Life in Dead Things’’ in further photographs of
store-window mannequins, such as Tra ̈umende
(Dreamers) orPantoffeln(Slippers) as well as in
the line-up of male heads inMenjou en gros(Men-
jou in large scale) (all from 1928/1929).
This concept of visually staging spontaneous-
ly found objects also continues in object pho-
tography such asKragen(Collar), 1930, and nude
photography such asAkt, 1930, where Umbo uses
brief clips to show the partial profile of an object-
like upper torso of a female. The photo, which
technically is suggestive of Imogen Cunningham’s
well-known photograph,Triangles, 1928, reduces
the human body to a largely abstract composition
of parts. The combination of realism and abstrac-
tion is also applied in the startling female portraits
of around 1927. Typical for these is the close-up-
effect and an often used harsh light-dark contrast
such as in the portraitRuth, 1927, which comes
from a series of images of the actress, Ruth Land-
shoff; as well as film-inspired overlapping forms
that were produced by multiple lightings as in
Simultanportra ̈t Gaby Meyer (Simultaneous Por-
trait of Gaby Meyer), 1927. The beauty of the
countenance is reduced to the essential elements.
The results are technically constructed pictures
of the extolled ‘‘modern woman’’ as determined
by contemporaries of the 1920s. His photograms,
simultaneous shots, work with X-ray film (to sub-
due half-tones), as well as experiments with nega-
tives, photo montages, and collages shaped further
development of abstractionism.
The magnitude of Umbo’s impact on the devel-
opment of contemporary photography at the end
of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s is clear
from the extensive presentation platform that was
granted him at the famous international exhibition
Film und Fotoin Stuttgart, Germany, 1929. How-
ever Umbo’s significance as one of the pioneers of
modern photography remained long unappre-
ciated, because all his archives (50,000–60,000
negatives) were lost during World War II. It was
not until the 1970s that he was rediscovered.
Franz-XaverSchlegelUMBO (OTTO UMBEHR)