Employed by Uitgeverij De Spaarnestad, Hugo returns to the Dutch East Indies as a photojournalist. As an external reporter (Civil Officer), he prepares with the Marines for the large-scale landing on 21 July 1947. This operation marks the beginning of the first Police Actions.
Printing and publishing company De Spaarnestad was the publisher of several popular magazines. During the time, Hugo Wilmar worked for Spaarnestad, his photographs were published in Katholieke Illustratie, Libelle, Beatrijs, Margriet and Panorama.
Sukarno
In the same year, he passes himself off as an American journalist. In Jakarta, the lion’s den, he makes a photo reportage of Sukarno, the leader of the Indonesian independence fighters. Spaarnestad publishes the reportage, as anonymously purchased American reportage, in Dutch magazines. Despite this security measure to protect Hugo’s identity, the ground in Indonesia gets too hot for him. Head over heels, Hugo leaves the region with destination Suriname.
(…) I ended the year 1947 – worthy of a glass-haired Marine – quite eccentric and original. Incognito and with the help of American “Slang” I spent 2 weeks fooling the entire republic; (…) I interviewed and photographed Sukarno (…)
Adventurer and travelling photojournalist
From June 1948, Hugo travelled through the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa in the service of De Spaarnestad. Gradually, Hugo developed more and more in manipulating reality to his liking. The adventurer creates tough visual stories of areas, virtually unknown to many in the Netherlands. It produces stunning and technically perfect visual material.
Haile Selassi
Hugo’s photo reports are viewed by an audience of millions. Flowery Adventures in Dark Africa includes stunning images of excavations in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, portraits of indigenous tribes and wildlife in South Africa’s Kruger Park. On a subsequent journey through North Africa, Hugo’s iconic images include Emperor Haile Selassi of Ethiopia.
Television
Publishing house De Spaarnestad decides in the early 1950s to outsource the reportages Hugo loves so much. Television is making its advance, and De Spaarnestad’s revenues are dwindling. Hugo Wilmar asks his employer, if he can cover the war in Indochina. However, the situation is too dangerous, and his request is turned down. It limits Hugo’s scope to Europe. By now, Hugo has also had enough of constantly living out of a suitcase. After one last report on tuna fishing in Portugal, Hugo ends his employment with De Spaarnestad in the autumn of 1951.
Hugo Wilmar says a final goodbye to the Netherlands in 1953 and emigrates to America.