Shooting Hoops is a long-term photography project by Austin Bell documenting every basketball court in Hong Kong from above. Started in 2019 as a visual curiosity, the photo series evolved into a large-scale exploration of the city’s urban fabric, capturing the unique presence of courts embedded within its dense architecture. The project culminated in a 2025 photobook featuring all 2,549 courts, alongside a series of prints and ongoing global work.
Across four winter visits and around 140 days of shooting, Bell systematically mapped and photographed courts throughout Hong Kong, ultimately creating one of the most comprehensive visual archives of its kind. The work blends documentary and abstraction, revealing how these everyday spaces, often overlooked, form a vibrant and essential layer of the city.
Scroll down to see the most striking images captured for the book, and read more about the project.
More info: Instagram | bellaustin.com
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As Austin shared about the basketball courts in Hong Kong, “their flatness and color stood out among the vertical density,” which first drew his attention while flying a drone over the city. What followed was an ambitious effort to find every court, using both satellite imagery and aerial shooting – sometimes capturing over 100 courts in a single day, and even reaching a personal record of 475. From his perspective, the abundance of courts is tied to their role as a “size-conscious default playground” in schools and housing, with nearly all schools featuring outdoor courts, many painted in bright, engaging colors.
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The author of the series also emphasizes how perspective transforms them: “they look so different from above than from the ground… almost like concrete crop circles.” This aerial view allowed him to experiment visually, ranging from tight, abstract compositions to wider shots that place the courts within Hong Kong’s dramatic landscape. By consistently shooting from a top-down angle, he was able to assemble them into grid-like mosaics, highlighting their sheer number and variety, while also uncovering courts that are often hidden from public view.
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