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Hans Kemna (1940 - 2024) was the most influential casting director in the Netherlands, and with no doubt, a pioneer in his field. With his enormous drive and love for film and theatre, he professionalised the casting of actors from the 1970s onwards, significantly elevating the quality of Dutch drama. After attending drama school and playing a role in Paul Verhoeven's Dutch TV series Floris (1969), the director involved Kemna in the casting of his feature film Wat zien ik (1971). A close collaboration and friendship followed and Hans cast all of Paul Verhoeven's Dutch feature films up to and including 2006's Zwartboek. For the film adaptation of Jan Wolkers' book Turks Fruit (1973), Hans Kemna discovered the then-unknown actress Monique van de Ven who plaid the leading role next to Rutger Hauer. Kemna also cast the Oscar-winning films De Aanslag (1986) by Fons Rademakers and Antonia (1995) by Marleen Gorris. From 1987, he was involved as a permanent casting director at Toneelgroep Amsterdam (now International Theater Amsterdam) where Kemna worked with Gert Jan Rijnders, and with Ivo van Hove until 2022. In 2005, Kemna received a Golden Calf for his significant contribution to Dutch film culture.
Besides his love of acting and theatre, Hans Kemna had a great passion for art, especially photography. Together with his partner, actor Adrian Brine (1936-2016), Kemna spent decades building a renowned collection of international photography, including works of Nan Goldin and Vanessa Beecroft, but especially national photography. The Kemna/Brine collection was particularly known for capturing the zeitgeist of photography in the Netherlands since the 1970s. In doing so, Kemna and Brine developed a preference for portrait photography with a special focus on the LGBTQIA+ community. As a result, the collection includes works by Rineke Dijkstra, Elspeth Diederix, Erwin Olaf and Viviane Sassen, among others. Like a living museum, the stately house on the Singel was filled to the ceiling with art, right down to the toilet, with the collection interspersed with designer furniture and antiques. Hans Kemna was also one of the earliest collectors of German photographer and Turner Prize winner Wolfgang Tillmans, with whom, as with many other artists he collected, he built up a dear friendship. In 2008, Kemna summarised the collection in a publication entitled Hans Kemna-Catalogue, on the occasion of the exhibition of his collection at museum De Hallen in Haarlem.
