John Stephen Hockensmith
Artist Statement
I am a photographer and sometimes a writer, the horse is my inspiration and serves as my metaphor.
With a thirty year career in professional photography, I have never lost sight of the original joy and fulfillment that creating a still image gives me. After many years of various art studies and searching other mediums as well, I arrived at the conclusion that I would strictly focus on the equine theme and over the last 15 years I have worked almost exclusively with the horse as my subject.
Cameras have taken a quantum leap since my first Pentax H1a in 1967. I currently use Nikon 300's and a small array of lenses, with my favorite for capturing the horse in flight being the 200mm to 400mm VR. In regard to printmaking, I use one of three substraits; either 500 gram somerset water-colour paper, canvas, or photographic matte paper. An Epson 9800 or 10000 wide body printer with pigmented ink or dyes is used to create the prints these days. The pigmented museum prints, that I am known for, have a recognizable hand-torn deckled edge on all four sides.
Over the last four years, I have devoted my time to being an author/photographer. In 2006, releasing my first book, Gypsy Horses and the Traveler's Way; and for release in June of 2009 is Spanish Mustangs in the Great American West. Regardless of the endeavor, my point of reference is always the visual. The moments I have a camera in my hands are the ones that I feel at home and the making of the print is my way of life.
Artists Career
Beginning in 1994, Hockensmith focused his artistic career on equine themes. From the mid-1990s to the present, he has published, exhibited and distributed fine equine art throughout the United States and in other countries around the world. Since 2000, he has been licensed by Churchill Downs to produce the official Kentucky Derby Winner’s Print and Winner’s Collection.
In 2004, Hockensmith’s one-man exhibition at the International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park, titled “Rare Breeds: from Figurative to Abstract,” generated international critical acclaim. In 2006, he completed another major exhibition for the International Museum of the Horse on Gypsy horses and the Appleby Horse Fair. This exhibit was accompanied by his first book, Gypsy Horses and the Travelers’ Way, a showcase of his photography, prose and poetry inspired by his travels with Romani Gypsies across northern England.
In 2007 and 2008, Hockensmith completed his second book, Spanish Mustangs in the Great American West. This book is a pictorial essay of today’s true colonial horse, the Spanish Mustang. The equine had been extinct millennia in the Western Hemisphere before re-introduced by Columbus’s second voyage. Hockensmith’s historical text chronicles the path of the horse from there through the conquistadors, the Plains Indian horse cultures, mountain men and explorers, the cowboy and the near eradication of the colonial bloodlines. The text follows the 21st century conservators of these colonial bloodlines today. The 272-page epic tome contains the finest photography of Hockensmith’s career.
Hockensmith’s many commercial clients include Toyota of North America, Toyota Manufacturing Kentucky, Lexmark, Universal Studios, The Kentucky Horse Park, Keeneland, Churchill Downs and the Office of the Governor of Kentucky. Many Fine Art collectors and horse lovers own and collect John S. Hockensmith’s work both nationally and internationally.
Publications
Gypsy Horses and the Travelers Way: The Road to Appleby Fair
[ click above images to go to the store ]
A camera is an instrument like a harp; it has to be played to create a song that can rise to reflect the inspiration of the musician who embraces and cajoles it.
Photographic images linger in a lasting illumination, a vision of what was and is ... being crafted by the interpretive grasp of the composer that witnessed, felt and was enlivened by the experience. While photography can become mired in commercialism, it can also soar on the wings of vision.
Vision is a gift; mine arrived on the back of the horse. The horse is my muse and brings me freedom with inspiration. As with any true gift, it must be given anew, shared, or it will wither into a possession.
With these thoughts, make room in your being to receive The Gift.
A poem from the second book by John S. Hockensmith:
The Gift
The true gift must circulate or it ceases to be,
Becoming imprisoned when taken into custody,
Redefined as finite, the boundless inside boundaries.
When contained, extraordinary becomes mundane
And inspiration turns into property, possessing stings
Like the quirt that leaves welts on the mustang's soul;
A wounded dove, that recovered but never set free.
To be a gift, it must continually be given or it ceases to be.
Spanish Mustangs in the Great American West: Return of the Horse
Available June 2009 www.finearteditions.net