Born in Düsseldorf on January 18, 1902, the second of ten children, Umbo received his first photo apparatus for Christmas in 1915: it was a 9 x 12 folding camera. From 1821 to 1923 he was at 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.
Despite reprisals, Umbo continued to work on his themes of portraits and cities even during the Nazi era. Working freelance for the propaganda newspaper Signal, he was able to avoid military service up until 1943. As of the summer of 1945 he lived in Hanover. Various reportages were produced after he was given a Leica.
In 1952 he spent three months travelling in the USA. He worked for the Kestner Gesellschaft Hanover. In 1979 his worked was recognised for the first time with an exhibition at the Spectrum Photogalerie in Hanover. Umbo passed away on May 12, 1980.
