After the end of it, he had to endure many years of financial hardships, which only changed after photography became accepted an own discipline of art and from 1975 onwards he had several exhibitions.
[1] At the Bauhaus he became acquainted with Oskar Schlemmer, Paul Citroen, Wassily Kandinsky and Eva Besnyö and was influenced by László Moholy-Nagy.
He made photo collages as a camera assistant for the 1927 film by Walter Ruttmann called Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis.
[3] In 1928 he became one of the founding members of the agency Dephot (Deutscher Photo Service GmbH) where he was friends with Felix H. Man and Robert Capa.
After the war Umbo returned to Hanover with his wife, the graphic designer Imgard Wanders and their daughter.