Scroll through #hongkong on social media and you’ll likely see posts dedicated to the city’s towering skyscrapers, the iconic Victoria Harbour, and golden hour shots against its iconic skyline. But an American shutterbug decided to combine his love for travel, architecture, landscape, and aerial photography and set out on a mission to immortalise the city in a unique way. The result is the aptly titled Shooting Hoops — a love letter to Hong Kong in the form of a book showcasing all of its 2,549 outdoor basketball courts.
How did the Shooting Hoops project begin?
Austin Bell’s first visit to Hong Kong in 2017 took him to the Choi Hung Estate, famous for its rainbow-hued façade and colourful basketball courts on the car rooftop. This sparked off the North Carolina native’s infatuation with the city’s courts. “I was most fascinated by the courts here — the colour, surroundings, ubiquity,” Austin tells The HK HUB, explaining that they are a stark contrast to the blacktops he’s used to seeing in the US. That trip to Hong Kong planted the seed for what would become Shooting Hoops and Austin returned often to the city, shooting in the territory for 140 days and capturing more than 40,000 pictures.
Austin became what he calls “an obsessive completist”, unable to rest until he unearthed every court in the city. He took “an immeasurable amount of time” to research locations, find out how to reach each one, and plan the most efficient routes to get there. Then, armed with only a Nikon DSLR camera and drone, he’d work from dawn to dusk, and often hit more than 100 courts a day. He used public transport to get everywhere — from the bustling Central and Western District on Hong Kong Island to remote Pui O in Lantau — so that he could explore and show an unseen perspective of a city he feels so captivated by.
Capturing a unique perspective of Hong Kong
His efforts produced some stunning images — an overhead shot of an MTR train passing over three courts in Sha Tin, another of a solitary court nestled among the city’s verdant hills in the southern district, and several images of courts between the SAR’s pervasive housing estates. When asked which courts are his favourites, Austin says, “I really like the ones on top of car parks or shopping centres. They are kind of hidden above and have really cool views next to housing estates or other areas.”
There were hurdles along the way. Austin had to hit pause on the endeavour during the Covid-19 pandemic, when travel restrictions prevented him from coming to the city. But once he resumed shooting, he faced more run-of-the-mill obstacles. “Weather and people are the main challenges that I can’t control. I usually always needed cloudy weather to get the shots that I wanted, and frequently I would get there and the clouds would be long gone, so I had to visit multiple times,” he explains.
Inspiration to shoot courts across the world
Once Austin was satisfied that he’d done justice to his vision, he started work on Shooting Hoops — the book in which he’s documented all the 2,500-plus courts he shot in the 852. The images have been sorted into grids by district, with the most visually appealing courts depicted in full-size spreads from multiple angles. Some of these pictures are on display at the Blue Lotus Gallery until February 23, 2025.
Austin’s experiences in Hong Kong even inspired him to take his project international. “When I was stuck outside Hong Kong during Covid, I shot in other places like New York and Puerto Rico. Now I try to ‘collect’ a few everywhere I go,” he says.
Image credits: Austin Bell
