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Course: Modernisms 1900-1980 > Unit 6
Lesson 1: Prints and photographyUmbo, The Roving Reporter
Umbo (Otto Umbehr), The Roving Reporter, photomontage (rephotographed), 1926 Speakers: Dr. Juliana Kreinik, Dr. Steven Zucker, Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- what is the process in making such a photogragh?(10 votes)
- The title of the video say how it was done... "photomontage (rephotographed)". He created a traditional montage, using pieces of previous photos (of the reporter's face, the background mountain, a camera, a car, etc.) -- assembling together those pieces as he wanted it. Then Umbo took a new B&W photograph of the montage. That's the mechanical / technical part of the process.
For the artistic process...... Inspiration, an idea or vision, a sense of what you want to say or show... this list coul(16 votes)
- This piece feels much more cynical to me than it seems to come across to the critics. I almost think they are poking fun at the ridiculousness of the reporter. The reporter thinks he can do all and know all, and the artist is doing a commentary on that in jest. Does anyone else see / feel that? Where is this painting held, by the way?(6 votes)
- I definitely see the cynicism of the piece. I also see the artist's sense of satire.(1 vote)
- What is protruding from the right side of his head?(3 votes)
- At2:23, the speakers refer to both the cones on the left and right side of his head as phonographs. I'm guessing that while the one on the left looks different from the one on the right that they may both be the same device, especially since the speakers talk about how his appendages and his senses are enhanced and the conical devices on his ears would aid in his hearing.(5 votes)
- Why was the portrait made this way with objects everywhere ?(2 votes)
- Perhaps the objects are a statement of the progressive dominance of technology.(1 vote)
- What is his left (extended forward) leg made of?(2 votes)
- Advanced technology of the time, as manifested in a bi-plane, moving the reporter forward at speed, crossing mountains, barrier in the land and in the mind with ease.(1 vote)
- The names of this time period are very interesting.(2 votes)
- How would the camera lens over his eye remind the speakers of a gas mask from WWII? I'm not seeing what they're talking about.(1 vote)
- Maybe it reminds them of a gas mask because like the eye sockets in a mask, a camera lens is like a large vacant eye. Looking at photos of WWII gas masks, (to me at least) it's easier to see the resemblance.(2 votes)
- Well now I can see why because they technologies were dominating the world at this time which is why the reporter is a giant.(1 vote)
- At4:04, what is the woman saying? She is referencing another artist and says "...images like (artist's name)" and it's hard to understand. I want to look up this other artist.(1 vote)
- She said George Gross. Here is a link to some of his art.
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2009/12/pulp-art-of-george-gross.html(1 vote)
- Did Umbo not like this specific reporter, or is he picking on reporters in general?(1 vote)
Video transcript
(music) ("In The Sky With
Diamonds" by Scalding Lucy) Steven: This is Steven Zucker. Beth: Beth Harris,
introducing Julie Kreinik. Julie's here for the first time joining us in Smarthistory and
we're going to talk about this really cool photograph
that I really love. Can you tell us what it is? Julie: It's actually a
photomontage and the title is "The Roving or Frantic Reporter". Beth: And this is portrait
of a specific person, right? Julie: It is a portrait
of a Czech journalist. The portrait's from 1926
and is of a man named Egon Erwin Kisch. Steven: And he was an actual reporter. Julie: He's was an actual reporter, an actual journalist who was roving around mostly in Germany and in
big cities like Berlin. The photomontage is by
this amazing German artist, Otto Umbehr, who went by the name "Umbo". Beth: So what's so amazing about Umbehr? Steven: Look at this,
it's fantastic! (laughs) Julie: We're going to
call him Umbo because that's the fly name that he chose, so he just went by Umbo. Umbo created this photomontage and really it relates both directly
to the kind of journalist that Kisch was and that
he was roving around and he was frantically
seeking new information. It also relates to this
idea that we're totally informed by the
technologies of our own era. I think it's just fascinating to look at all these modern technologies that create this journalist, that make up him. Steven: And in a sense, make
up the culture at this moment. Julie: Absolutely. Beth: And really kind of dominated the way people were interacting with the world, just like we are so
involved with the internet and chatting and IM ... (crosstalk). Steven: But the word
you used a moment ago, dominating, is perfect
because this is a giant who's striving over the city. Julie: He is. He's dominating
the landscape completely. And he sees everything. Beth: He does, like God. Julie: Well, he has all of these sort of, they're enhanced appendages
and sensory abilities, so you can see the camera lens makes up his right eye and he has
the phonograph speaker as his ear. He hears
better than anyone else. Beth: And he moves better. Julie: His leg is a car and a plane. Beth: He's ready to move. Steven: It's so interesting
because in the '20s is really when popular
comic figures were with sort of expanded powers, right? Beth: Mm-hmm, superheroes. Steven: Superheroes were
really being developed - Julia: Is that true? Does
that date from the '20s? Steven: Absolutely. Beth: Like a superhero
journalist (laughs). It reminds of walking texting now with your phone because
he's actually typing as he's trying to get
over the mountains and the crowd below. Julie: Of course at the
time, the typewriter is to them what Blackberry is to us. That's what I found. It's that thing that speeds up commuications. Steven: That's really
interesting because now of course, in a popular
press, there's all these fears about people spending too much time on their Blackberries, too
much time on their computers, and I mean this is very true. Beth: And multi-tasking - (crosstalk) Steven: So this is also I think
and expression of those fears . Julie: It's kind of a
monstrous figure with this technology and I think it's also like he's heroic and that he's huge and enormous and he has all these enhanced sensory abilities like a super
hero, got super powers, but he's also really a menacing. Beth: Yeah. Steven: No question. Beth: Stomp on the crowd
below and shove them. Julia: Yes, he's going to crush them with of his abilities there. Beth: This also really reminds me of images of people after
World War I with prosthesis. Julie: Yes. Steven: So the deformation of the body. Beth: Yeah, like the people, the veterans coming back and images by George Gross, the wounded war veterans. (crosstalk) Julie: The Krieg's cripple is there were the war cripple and that was just this huge symbolic and literal figure that came into the German, and many landscapes, but especially all across Germany, there were 4 million
new wounded war veterans that were all of sudden - Julie: Not all of them
had prosthetic limbs, but a huge proportion of them did. The technologies of the war totally changed the way people relate to their own bodies and the way that they relate to other people's bodies. This really isn't a
good association because Germany lost the war, so
they're not looked on as heroic figures, they're
the veterans who lost, they lost their limbs. Beth: It's a reminder to
show their humiliation. Julie: Yeah. Steven: But that's been
reversed here because even though there's a menace and there's a negative aspect to some extent, there's also real promise
here and sense of power. The parts of his face
that are not obscured are still really quite handsome and there's a very positive
aspect here as well. Julie: I think he's dashing. Beth: He is dashing with a cigarette - Beth: Very suave. Julie: Kind of glamorous. Steven: So it's a kind of retrieval of the promise of
technology then in some way. Julie: Sort of trying
to reclaim technology as something that offers promise, optimism, hope and things
that help progress. Beth: Progress. Julie: Exactly, modern culture, progress. Steven: This was a pretty desperate moment in German economic history. Julie: It's actually interestingly, a few years after desperation, things are better in Germany ... Beth: Slightly better. Julie: ... Slightly better in 1926, I mean a lot better than they were in 1920. Through the early '20s,
things were still in recovery, but by the mid '20s,
things were getting better and I think in large part due to things like industrial - Beth: I'm wondering if
people looking at this and seeing the camera by his eye, would have thought of
those images of gas masks during the war. Steven: Yeah, that's a
pretty dense layer of associations here, it's
pretty extraordinary. How was this kind of imagery
received in the '20s? Julie: I think it had different audiences. I think artists that looked at it that were interested in seeing new kinds of image making, new vision photography, received it really well. This is also on the cover of a book. That was sort of a collection of Kirsch's journalistic pieces. It was reproduced many, many times. That's also kind of
relating to the idea of modern technology and reproduction, so the images reproduce,
it's rephotographed, Beth: Made from photographs. Julie: Made from
photographs, pieced together, kind of their variety of echoes. For me one of the really interesting things is the idea of
the speed ad technology everything kind of coming together. The journalist is exploring things and looking all around him, it's almost like he can see everything at once and technology is what's
enabling him to do that. I think that idea that
technology enables us to do more and better and faster - Beth: Which we still have. Julie: Exactly. I think
it was exciting then and I think it was exciting - Beth: Technology can solve our problems. Steven: But I think also the reinsertion of the power of the journalist is probably a really important issue at this moment. Especially if we get the sense that the journalist has some integrity. It's not a part of a larger
machine of propaganda. Beth: Right. Steven: It has some objectivity. Beth: Right, which is also of course going to disappear in Nazi Germany. Steven: Very quickly. Julie: By the end of the
1920s and early 1930s things are looking vastly different. But '26 is a good year. The economy's looking up, things aren't quite looking bad yet. There's this moment of progress and technology is just integral to that. It's integral to his body. Steven: It's fascinating.
Terrific. Thanks. (music) ("In The Sky With
Diamonds" by Scalding Lucy)