Cees Jongkind was born in Amsterdam on 27th March 1924. At first. he worked as construction engineer and later on as municipal surveyor in Zutphen.

While still a young amateur photographer, Jongkind took pictures with a 35 mm Certo Dollina camera belonging to his father and he was regularly on the move to record special events. That is how he took photographs in early May 1945 of the first Allied reconnaissance jeeps to enter Amsterdam, the entry of the Canadians in Amsterdam, the festivities in honour of the Liberation and the food drops. In 2001, the negatives were donated to the then Nederlands Fotoarchief (Netherlands Photo Archives).

From 1945 Jongkind worked as a surveyor in the Betuwe region where he took photographs of the ravages of war.