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Tea for Two

Umbo (Otto Umbehr) German

Not on view

In the mid-1930s a German industrial manufacturer commissioned the photographer Umbo (Otto Umbehr) to promote its new fish-eye lens camera. A known master of perspectival play, Umbo here riffs on the association of overindulgence with visual distortion. Posing with his sister, he stages the scene from below, as if seen by a buzzed companion who has slipped beneath the table. The photograph appeared in the pages of a popular periodical, alongside other inventive applications of the camera’s 180-degree lens.

Tea for Two, Umbo (Otto Umbehr) (German, Düsseldorf 1902–1980 Hanover), Gelatin silver print

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