Cultural diversity within the lines of basketball courts from around the world.

The ‘World of Hoops’ project originated in 2015 while I was traveling around the world.  It was next to a gas station outside of Beijing where I shot the first bucket. It was so out of place that I had to capture it!  The following were in the Chinese “ghost” cities Ordos and Tianducheng. At that point it was just few pictures, but after shooting the tropical Colombian Cartagena court, I knew that it had become something.  It became an interesting way to navigate through a city, to visit neighborhoods you wouldn’t typically find yourself in, a fun side project while exploring the world.

Over time the project grew slowly into a never ending story of capturing and portraying basketball courts and their cultures from around the world. Every court tells a different story if it’s by the placement of its lines, its location, or its surroundings.  Nevertheless they all have one thing in common, and that’s a rim. Without the rim there is no basket, without the basket there is no game, without the game there is no life, because we all know…Ball is Life.

A project by Thijs Janssen
Mail : hello@world-of-hoops.com

Amount of baskets per continent (331)

Africa

1

Asia

131

Europe

114

North America

35

South America

41

Oceania

9

Next up destinations

Taiwan

February 2023

Napoli, Italy

July 2023

Netherlands

September 2023

Now available in the shop

The shop is finally online! You can find a variety of calendars, postcards and soon also limited edition prints. Check it out, I think you will like it.