Just added a new limited edition set of basketball prints to my web store. Instead of going bigger, this is a smaller more intimate batch of prints at 5”x7” in a set of 10 in a limited edition of 25. The thing I’m most excited by though, is this is all new work that was not published in the American Backcourts book! Thank you so much to everyone that bought a book or print during the Thanksgiving sale.
10 years into this series and it’s still just as much fun documenting the sport of basketball as it was initially. It’s always interesting to think about the games played on hoops in different parts of the country. It’s also enjoyable to see the images and realize that each one was an experience in itself to make. The first photo here in Primm was taken on a day so windy that I had to brace myself with one leg five feet in front of the other. You can see how the net is being pushed backwards. The second shot is from a high school gym in the middle of a remodel. Door was wide open and not a sole in sight. The hoop in Santa Rosa is actually one I photographed 10 or so years ago under completely different conditions. That image from all those years ago is in the book. Crazy how a location so random can be unintentionally revisited. And shocking to see that there is still a chain net hanging from the rim. The last image was made on a road I’ve driven a hundred times and never noticed before.
There are plenty of people that would argue on either side, but regardless of which one you’re on, you’ll have to agree that Venice Beach is one of the street ball meccas of the USA? NYC obviously being the other. It’s my personal opinion that White Men Can’t Jump is the greatest basketball movie ever made. It takes place in a few locations around LA, but most notably Venice, and was certainly the thing that put Venice basketball on the map. The games that happen there today look a lot different, but I appreciate what’s happening either way. Nick Ansom is the one at the helm of the Venice Basketball League now. He is responsible for all the creative energy and growth that happens locally as well as across the country and overseas. If you haven’t seen what he’s done with the Hoop Bus, check it out. Very impressive. I linked up with Nick a while back because of our obvious shared interest in basketball. Yet another example of personal projects leading to fun outcomes/relationships. COVID was a strange time for the VBL because it literally couldn’t happen. The city put a device on all the rims that prohibited play. As the saying goes though, Basketball Never Stops. Instead of sitting around crying about it, Nick put his energy into another creative endeavor - Survival Hoops. Along with another artist friend, they started creating hoops out of junk. It started small, but after a while they had built and hung 100+ beautifully weird hoops all over the alleys of Venice Beach. About a month ago we linked up and documented their work. I really enjoyed seeing what they had created and am honored to be part of a piece of basketball culture. It would be easy to write this project off as someone just being bored and having time to kill during a pandemic. You would be wrong though. What they created is much bigger than that. It’s well thought out, deliberate, and has brought a lot of happiness not just to the people who have played on them, but also to the locals in Venice that walk by these hoops every day. And hopefully it will be preserved in some kind of document for people to see years from now.
Follow the Venice Basketball League on IG @veniceball
Contact me directly if you’d like prints of these images for your home, office, or commercial space - rob@robhammerphotography.com
Feels so good to see the world opening back up. Over the last week especially there has been so much life out on the street and in the local shops, restaurants, and bars. Grateful to have the opportunity to be social again while sharing some work from American Backcourts. So if you’re in San Diego during the month of June, stop on by Culture Brewing Company in Encinitas to check out some fine art prints while enjoying some delicious craft beer in the sunshine.
