Umbo, a photographer from the Weimar era

Otto Maximilian Umbehr, known as Umbo, was born in Düsseldorf in 1902. He received his first photo apparatus in 1915. From 1921 to 1923 he was at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he attended a preparatory class with Johannes Itten. He became deeply involved in photography in Berlin; above all portraits, but also experimenting with photogramme and other techniques and materials.

Umbo had already lived a turbulent life by the time he was accepted at the Bauhaus : having grown up in poor circumstances, a school drop-out, a rambler, a coal mine worker, an artistic potter, the Bauhaus became his field of experimentation for two years, before he had to leave the school prematurely – it seems that even there he was seen as ill adjusted. He then spent years taking a number of different jobs.

Karstadt store in Berlin-Hermannplatz

 

However, the precarious life he had led took a decisive turn in 1927: through his Bauhaus friend Paul Citroen, Umbo rediscovered his passion for photography. The first publications of his work quickly led to fame: his pictures appeared in numerous magazines, he took part in exhibitions and, as of 1928, became photo reporter for Dephot, a picture service.

In the twenties, Umbo applied the “New Photography” imagery to his work, in a manner that was innovative and surprisingly diverse. His experimental photography was perfectly suited to the growing media metropolis that was Berlin at the time. Window display mannequins, strong women, artists, Grock the clown: in just a few years, he produced a grandiose body of work. In 1928/1929, "Umbo the Bohemian" was at the peak of his fame, present in virtually every important avant-garde exhibition and publication. 

He pioneered a new aesthetic of photography and design in inter-war Germany, to little contemporary success. After dropping out of the Bauhaus school, he retained the influences and friendships of Johannes Itten and Paul Citroen. While working as a camera assistant to Walter Ruttmann on his 1927 avant-garde film "Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt" (Symphony of a Great City), Umbo created promotional photomontages for the film, such as the program for its French release. The film's avant-garde nature, devoid of a structured script or narrative, married well with the artist's blunt and pointed photographic presentation, both aiming to present the raw reality of daily life in Berlin. The photomontages also present sharp political and cultural commentary through his purposeful collages, such as in The Roving Reporter (by that surname was the journalist Egon Erwin Kisch known)  pictured on the back of this program, which visually conveys the towering influence of the media and technology over German society.

The roving reporter

Symphony of a great city

1951