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Kylie Knott

In 2017, American photographer Austin Bell visited Choi Hung Estate, a public housing estate in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district that is also an Instagram hotspot popular with residents and tourists, who flock there to photograph its colourful facade.
It was his first visit to the city and, like many, he was captivated by the vibrant hues of the estate’s buildings, which were named Choi Hung after the Cantonese for “rainbow”.
But what really struck a chord were the bold patterns covering the estate’s basketball courts.
“I flew a drone over them and it transformed into a geometric work of art that you could only see from above,” he says.

The courts were in stark contrast to the bland asphalt surfaces found in America, he says.
The vibrant imagery, which aligned with his love of novel aerial perspectives and architecture, sent his mind spinning. “How many more like this existed in the city?” he asked himself.
In 2019, he returned with a mission to find out, photographing what he estimates to be every outdoor basketball court in Hong Kong: 2,549 in total.
It was an ambitious project, one best summed up in numbers. After 140 days of shooting over several years, Bell had compiled 40,000 photos taken at 1,935 locations in schools, public housing estates and playgrounds in Hong Kong’s 18 districts.
“The colourful courts really stand out among the buildings and it seemed that everywhere I looked, dozens broke up the vertical density of the city,” he says.


A selection of his photos are now on show in “Shooting Hoops”, a solo exhibition at Blue Lotus Gallery in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan neighbourhood until February 23. Coinciding with the exhibition is the release of his self-published book of the same title.
On a crisp morning in November, Bell returns to Blake Garden Basketball Courts in Sheung Wan that were part of his project.
The area’s three courts perfectly encapsulate the power of perspective. Seen from street level, they pack little visual punch. View them from above, however, and the space is transformed into a kaleidoscope of colourful shapes.
“I became quietly obsessed with making sure I captured every court in Hong Kong and was regularly shooting from dawn to dusk,” says Bell, who wears a colourful T-shirt featuring a mosaic of his photos.


He says it was not uncommon to visit 100 courts a day. In one densely populated neighbourhood he shot 475 different courts in a single day.
Trawling Google Maps and using his drone, Bell hunted for courts and discovered Hong Kong had a vast number.
It is part of the urban plan, says Jeroen van Ameijde, an assistant professor in urban design at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, whose comments are included in Bell’s 356-page book.

After Hong Kong’s rapid economic growth in the 1950s and ’60s, sports and recreation were included in the planning of new towns and housing, van Ameijde says.
“The 1982 Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines, and the 1991 ‘Metroplan’ included specific planning directions for sports and recreation, which included basketball courts,” he is quoted as saying in the book.
“Based on studies into the public’s leisure preferences, the regulations adopted specific population-based requirements for ‘core activities’, a list of indoor and outdoor sports and recreational facilities.
“This included a provision of outdoor basketball courts across all of Hong Kong, requiring one court for every 10,000 local residents.
“It was also stipulated that ‘Local open space should be located within a short walking distance from the residents it intends to serve, preferably within a radius of not more than about 0.4km [0.25 miles].’”


While Hong Kong is one of the highest-density cities in the world, sports and recreational facilities can be found within walking distance for most residents, he says.
The fun use of colour is also intentional, with the various government bodies involved – the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Housing Authority, and the Education Bureau – using it to brighten the environment and make the recreational spaces happy ones for people to play in.
“It is a way of warding off potential dystopian vibes,” suggests Bell, who admits that while he likes basketball, he is not a hardcore fan.
“I stopped playing at about age 11 but I like to maintain the illusion that I’m good by not actually taking a shot,” he laughs.



He does, however, have a connection to Stephen Curry, a four-time NBA champion, all-time NBA leader in three-pointers made, and the only person to be unanimously voted the NBA’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the league’s history.
“We attended the same small liberal arts college in my home state of North Carolina and I’ve been following his career for a while,” he says.
“But even if I didn’t care about basketball, for me, this project is more about the architecture, the geometry.”
Sarah Greene, founder of Blue Lotus Gallery, says Bell’s fun body of work is more than a collection of courts – it paints a comprehensive picture of Hong Kong’s unique topography.
“Very few artists have captured Hong Kong so extensively and completely,” she says.



And Bell had fun doing it. He is full of praise for Hong Kong’s compact design and efficient public transport system that made his “insane plan” possible.
He not only explored the crowded city, but visited far-flung islands as well as rural and beachside villages.
He found that courts are not just used for basketball but are gathering places for people to sing, dance, practice tai chi – even dry clothes.
“From the intense urban streets of the city centre to the serene tranquillity of rural villages, I came to see not just the courts, but the beautiful places that surrounded them,” he says.
“Visiting these basketball courts enriched my life as deeply as the lives of the millions who play on them.”
“Shooting Hoops” by Austin Bell, Blue Lotus Gallery, 28 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan. Ends February 23.


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Photographed from above, Hong Kong’s 2,549 outdoor basketball courts become geometric art

American photographer Austin Bell’s aerial photos of Hong Kong’s basketball courts capture vibrant colours and geometric shapes found painted on many across the city - details that are difficult to notice at ground level. Photo: Austin Bell

Photographer Austin Bell wears a colourful T-shirt featuring a mosaic of his photos. Photo: Kylie Knott 

The Blake Garden Basketball Courts in Sheung Wan photographed by drone. Photo: Austin Bell

Bell’s mission took him to every corner of Hong Kong. Photo: Austin Bell

A basketball court in Kwai Chung. Photo: Austin Bell

A basketball court in Tseung Kwan O. Photo: Austin Bell

The cover of Austin Bell’s new book, Shooting Hoops. Photo: Austin Bell

A photo from the “Shooting Hoops” exhibition. Photo: Austin Bell

A basketball court in the beachside village of Shek O. Photo: Austin Bell 

Basketball courts in Sha Tin. Photo: Austin Bell 

Bell found many of the courts by trawling Google Maps and using his drone. Photo: Austin Bell

Basketball courts featured in Shooting Hoops. Photo: Austin Bell

Actor Chow Yun-fat, showing his photographs of Hong Kong, says ‘It works when it’s right’

For actor Chow Yun-fat, photography has become a passion. Photo: Harbour City

Detail from an example of Chow Yun-fat’s street photography, seen in his exhibition at Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui. The actor often goes out in urban Hong Kong in the early morning before the hustle and bustle of a typical working day begins. Photo: Harbour City

An older man sips from a cup outside a cafe in Hong Kong’s Central district, as captured by Chow Yun-fat. Photo: Harbour City

Chow Yun-fat removed the aperture blades from the lenses of his camera to create a shallow depth of field, sharpening a photo’s subject and softening the background. Photo: Harbour City

Chow (above, right) wears inconspicuous outfits to take photographs. Photo: Harbour City

One of Chow Yun-fat’s “selfies” featured in his photo exhibition at Harbour City. Photo: Harbour City

Chow Yun-fat often plays with his camera to create unique effects. Photo: Harbour City

Actor Chow Yun-Fat describes the centrepiece of his exhibition, a photo he calls Untitled, of Victoria Harbour and the Wan Chai skyline in a black rainstorm. Photo: SCMP

“Hong Kong Morning” features 30 photographs. Each word in the show’s title represents a photographic category. Photo: Harbour City

Photos of Hong Kong, from hard times after World War II to resurgence in 1960s and ’70s, show city’s incredible transformation

Hedda Morrison’s photo of a cigarette seller in 1940s Hong Kong. Street sellers like this woman had lives full of concern and uncertainty – as her wary, sharp-eyed expression perhaps suggests. Photo: courtesy of the President and Fellows of Harvard College 

This photograph, probably taken at Sheung Wan’s Poor Man’s Night Club’ in the early 1970s, features in an exhibition of images of Hong Kong showing its transformation from the hard times of the post-war years to the 1970s. Photo: Brian Brake courtesy Wai-man Lau

Rickshaw men haul rattan and wicker baskets laden with produce to market. Photo: the estate of Lee Fook Chee

Hedda Morrison’s photo of a hawker waiting to make a sale. Some of his chickens are tied up with the grass string used by traders, others are in a split-bamboo poultry carrier. Photo: courtesy of the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Rice is offloaded from sampans and junks, and local boys have some summer fun near Wing Lok Street. Photo: the estate of Lee Fook Chee

Tanka women collect fresh water from a fire hydrant. Carrying water to junks and sampans was mostly done by women and children. Photo: the estate of Lee Fook Chee

Bronzed from years spent outdoors, these lightermen were paid by the load. Their ribs reflect the recent wartime food shortages and general hardship. Hedda Morrison held ordinary people, especially manual workers, in high regard. Her photos reflect this lifelong personal respect. Photo: courtesy of the President and Fellows of Harvard College 

A Public Works Department steamroller at the intersection of Des Voeux Road and Queen Victoria Street. Photo: the estate of Lee Fook Chee

Des Voeux Road, just west of Pedder Street. A delivery man carries his lunch tray; rickshaws ply for trade; and trams clatter past. A tram inspector in his ‘summer whites’ looks past a large saloon. The Siberian Fur Store is on the right. Photo: the estate of Lee Fook Chee

From the late 1950s, textile manufacturing and other clothing industries grew rapidly. By the early 1960s, Hong Kong’s textile manufacturing industry had become the most successful in Asia. Photo: Brian Brake courtesy Wai-man Lau

The Jockey Club’s Happy Valley race stands were expanded in stages between 1955 and 1995. Photo: Brian Brake courtesy Wai-man Lau

Kowloon’s Tsz Wan Shan Resettlement Estate in Kowloon. Built between 1964 and 1971, with 63 blocks it was the largest resettlement estate built in Hong Kong. Seen here in the early to middle 1970s, there is much washing – but not one air conditioner.  Photo: Brian Brake courtesy Wai-man Lau

A rooftop school in the Kwun Tong Resettlement Estate. The photo was taken about 1970. Only a few years later, most rooftop schools – critical to the growth of primary education in the 1950s and 1960s – would fade into history.  Photo: Brian Brake courtesy Wai-man Lau

Old photos of Hong Kong show the historic events that made it the city it is today

A photo of a confrontation between police and demonstrators in Hong Kong in 1967, one of the many images from the collection of photojournalist Frank Fischbeck appearing in the University of Hong Kong’s online exhibition. Photo: courtesy The University of Hong Kong Libraries

BEIJING, CHINA - JANUARY 01:  In Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Premier Chou En-Lai (L) roars with laughter after US tabletennis team head Graham Steenhoven (R) suggests that his team was overfed after the many banquets the chinese gave them. Credit: Frank Fischbeck / Getty Images

--ONE TIME USE ONLY-China and Britain signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Beijing on December 19, 1984.  Credit: Frank Fischbeck

CHINA - JANUARY 01:  Chinese school children marching along the road carying red communist flag and a portrait of chairman Mao Tse Tung.  (Photo by Frank Fischbeck/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images)Credit: Frank Fischbeck / Getty Images

--ONE TIME USE ONLY-The group of dignitaries below the giant British and Chinese flags at the handover ceremony inside the HK Convention Centre on July 1, 1997.Credit: Frank Fischbeck

--ONE TIME USE ONLY-The opening ceremony of the Chinese section of the Kowloon Canton Railway on 5 October,1911  Credit: Frank Fischbeck

Mr Frank Fischbeck (right), winner of the "Hong Kong in Progress" photography competition, receiving a prize from Sir Kenneth Pin-fan Fung at a prize presentation ceremony. 07JUL79 SCMP / P. Y. Tang

--ONE TIME USE ONLY-Whampoa Dock Machine ShopOn 8 December 1941, Japanese bombers appeared over Hong Kong without warning. By war's end much of the city's infrastructure was destroyed, including the main machine shop of the Hong Kong Whampoa Dock Company. The dockyard also became a major target for US planes during the Second World War. The Americans disabled facilities that the occupying Japanese Forces might use to their advantage. During similar raids the Americans Air Force targeted the Taikoo Dockyards as well as Japanese oil storage depots in Lai Chi KokCredit: Frank Fischbeck Collection

--ONE TIME USE ONLY-The Qing court was still in power in September 1909 when Governor Lugard posed on the steps of Government House with members of the Legislative Council and with the royal visitor from Peking, Prince Tsai Hsun. On LugardÕs left is Yuan Shu-hsun, Viceroy of Canton.Credit: Frank Fischbeck Collection

Young naked women are their canvas – nude art of 2 anonymous Hong Kong artists challenges city’s conservative attitudes towards sex

Lousy’s body paint on a nude woman. The anonymous Hong Kong graffiti artist paints bold designs on young, naked women then photographs them in erotic poses. Photo: Lousy                                                         

Another of Lousy’s “kissfaces”, on Queen’s Road West in Hong Kong. Photo: Lousy

Lousy’s photobook “Yook”, published in 2020. Photo: Lousy

Matsushimaon’s body art on a nude woman. Photo: Matsushimaon

Professor Sonia Wong says there is not a lot of space in erotic or explicit artistic disciplines for women to express their sexuality, especially in Hong Kong. Photo: Professor Sonia Wong

Artist Lousy’s portrait. Photo: Lousy

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Austin Bell’s mission to shoot all 2,549 courts took him and his drone across the city, and created geometric art for a book and exhibition


Austin Bell’s mission to shoot all 2,549 courts took him and his drone across the city, and created geometric art for a book and exhibition.


Photographed from above, Hong Kong’s 2,549 outdoor basketball courts become geometric art

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Austin Bell’s mission to shoot all 2,549 courts took him and his drone across the city, and created geometric art for a book and exhibition

Austin Bell’s mission to shoot all 2,549 courts took him and his drone across the city, and created geometric art for a book and exhibition