[2][3][5] Kleingrothe was able to document government parties, the laying of a major railroad line, and the day-to-day life of locals.
He captured the production of tobacco, coffee, tea, rubber, and palm oil; landscape and architecture; portraits;[5] and nudes.
When photographing locals, Kleingrothe tended to dress and position them in highly exoticized ways and sold the resulting prints as postcards.
[2] Kleingrothe briefly returned to Europe in the early 1900s and had built up enough of a reputation as a artistic photographer that his albums quickly became valuable.
He became a landlord and opened a cinema and tobacco business but relocated to Frankfurt with his second wife, Maria, around the time World War II broke out.