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Mysterium der Strasse, 1928
Umbo (Otto Umbehr) (German, 1902–1980)
Gelatin silver print; 11 7/16 x 9 1/4 in. (29 x 23.5 cm)
Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987 (1987.1100.49)
© Galerie Rudolf Kicken, Cologne and Phyllis Umbehr, Frankfurt/M.

This photograph does not describe what Otto Umbehr saw when he looked out his window in Berlin, but what he discovered when he turned his overhead view of the street upside down. His simple inversion (indicated by his signature "Umbo" in the lower right corner) posits an unsettling world in which the insubstantial dominates the substantial, and imagination intercepts cognition.


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  • Mysterium der Strasse, 1928
    Umbo (Otto Umbehr) (German, 1902–1980)
    Gelatin silver print; 11 7/16 x 9 1/4 in. (29 x 23.5 cm)
    Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987 (1987.1100.49)
    © Galerie Rudolf Kicken, Cologne and Phyllis Umbehr, Frankfurt/M.