John Stephen Hockensmith
John Stephen Hockensmith, a native Kentuckian, studied art and photography at Georgetown College in Kentucky. He began his career in 1975 working for the Commonwealth of Kentucky as a photographer. After gaining training and experience from the state government, he began an independent photography business opening a studio and art gallery, in 1979 in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Throughout the 1980s, he pursued fine arts and exhibited paintings, sculptures and photographs. In 1986, he had his first one-man exhibit of paintings at the Headley-Whitney Museum in Lexington, Kentucky.
Beginning in 1994, John Stephen 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 contracted by Churchill Downs to produce the official Kentucky Derby Winner's Print and Winner's Collection.