During the
Nazi occupation of the Netherlands Jesse was commissioned by Utrecht municipality
archivist JWC van Campen to carry out a visual documentation of life in that city. He made 400 black and white photos and 136
colour slides which, with the more than 1,000 colour slides by Alphons Hunstinx (Dutch Institute for War Documentation), is the largest collection of colour images in which the daily life of a Dutch city is documented during the occupation. The destruction of
Rotterdam in May 1940, and the strategic importance of Utrecht as a railway junction and industrial zone provided the impetus, and Jesse carried out the photography in the winter and summer of 1942, incidentally capturing the imposed
anti-Semitism. His eldest daughter Wendela is born in May 1943, followed by Maggie (1945) and Rutger (1946) and the young family takes up residence in
Ameide in South Holland, where he takes a practice. In 1947 the doctor's house is rebuilt by Rietveld, after which the births of Anita (1949) and Colette (1951) follow. During this period Jesse is assisted in his photographic work by Jan Versnel (1924-2007). His first book
Utrecht As It Is is published in 1950. Books on other countries follow, including Spain (1955), the
French Riviera (1956), London (1959), Rome (1960), Berlin (1960) and Paris again (1962) and his archive contains several dummies for proposals on a wide variety of topics, including flamenco dancers, the liberation of Ameide in 1945 and sculpture in the Netherlands. In 1953, he was commissioned by the Society for the Exploitation of Limburg Coal Mines to produce photos and design for a book on Oranje Nassau Mines and he was rarely short of commissions through the remaining 1950s and the 60s. His
Women of Paris (1954) was so successful that it was published by the same publishing house, Bruna, in a paperback edition. Both Women of Paris and Orange Nassau Mines were nominated best designed books of the year 1954 by the commission for the collective promotion of Dutch Book (CPNB). Given the success of
Women of Paris and due to his increasing work as a photographer for the Paviljoen voor de Volksgezond (Pavilion of Public Health) at the 1955 Nationale Energie Manifestatie E ’55 (Exposition) in Rotterdam, Jesse abandoned his general practice to concentrate on photography. The family settled on the estate Over Holland in
Loenen aan de Vecht, equidistant from and between Amsterdam and Utrecht.
Edward Steichen invites Nico Jesse, along with fellow Netherlandaise photographers
Emmy Andriesse,
Eva Besnyö,
Ed van der Elsken,
Henk Jonker,
Cas Oorthuys and Hans Schreiner, to participate in the 1955 exhibition
The Family of Man at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York. Jesse then joins the Dutch Photographers Patrons Association (NFPV) and in 1956 publishes
Visiting the French Riviera and
Footsteps of Rembrandt with Bruna. Another book is commissioned by textile factory N.J. Menko N.V. and exhibited in the town hall of
Enschede. Jesse mounts a second solo exhibition at Art Trading Wagenaar in Utrecht which is again opened by Gerrit Rietveld. He is joined by novelist and artist
Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995) for several months in 1957 as his voluntary assistant. At the time, Hermans was writing his
De donkere kamer van Damocles (The Darkroom of Damocles) which features a mysteriously blank photograph. The following year he meets German journalist Christine (Ute) Vallance (born Fischinger) (1922-2004) and she acts as his guide on a trip to Berlin, where he photographs for publisher Van Loghum Slaterus. Though the book does not appear in the Netherlands, it is titled
Menschen in Berlin and in 1960 released by Sigbert Mohn Verlag in Germany. He does not return to Over Holland, though Margreet remains there, but after a short stay in the Netherlands, Ute Fischinger and Jesse go to Paris and live in a caravan on the . In the following year they collaborate on the book
Paris and are married in May 1961 in
Ticino, Switzerland. Thereafter, until 1971, Jesse works in the service of the meat processor Homburg, photographing for
annual reports, trade displays and
advertising, combining this with his
freelance commercial photography, resigning after a disagreement on an advertising campaign. In financial straits, he sells his photography equipment and stores his archive in an empty factory in
Cuijk and takes up medically related work in
Oss and then in insurance for GAK in
Venlo. He died unexpectedly on 21 January 1976, of
cardiac arrest. ==Recognition==