The photographs that he produced during his visit to the colony in 1851 ranged in subject from antiquities and landscapes to portraits, court-photography, model studies and nudes.

Having studied painting and singing in Paris, he joined a French opera group that travelled to Batavia (the present day Jakarta) in 1851.

[2] After several performances the group left the Dutch East Indies, but Van Kinsbergen decided to stay there.

As part of his contract with the Batavian Society, van Kinsbergen had to take photographs of Borobudur, which had just been cleaned and restored.

His work on repairing the system for managing water flow during his trip in the Dieng Plateau in order to photograph the Javanese Hindu temple there was avidly praised by the Society.

The board then decided that van Kinsbergen was no longer obliged to follow Brumund's directions, but should pursue his own vision.

Later in 1872, van Kinsbergen published photographs of monuments in Java, but he was criticized for missing some important ruins, for instance, those in the east of Kediri.

To stress its timeless beauty, van Kinsbergen blocked out the original background in the negative film instead of putting up a black curtain during photographing.