Where Streetball Becomes Sculpture

The basketball hoops I photographed in Courtside Candy weren’t made in factories or sponsored by brands. They were made by an artist (Nick Ansom), welded together in backyards, bolted to alleyway walls, and patched together with whatever materials were around; bike rims, plywood scraps, milk crates, rusted steel. In Venice Beach, this isn’t junk. It’s basketball art.

Each hoop reflects a specific personality. Sometimes playful, sometimes gritty, always creative. They’re part of a larger story about the culture of the game. These aren’t just functional backboards; they’re sculptures. And like all good art, they say something about the people who built them.

Venice Beach: A Legacy of Basketball and Creativity

Venice Beach has always been more than a postcard, it’s one of the most iconic basketball communities in the country. It’s where pickup games turn into performances, and where the court is as much a canvas as the chaos and mural-covered buildings around it.

Courtside Candy lives in that space between sport and expression. The hoops in this series represent the DIY spirit that runs through Venice’s streetball scene. They speak to resourcefulness, style, and the love of the game without any need for polish or perfection. In a place where surfing, skateboarding, painting, music, and basketball all collide, these hoops feel right at home.

About the Courtside Candy Book

The Courtside Candy book is a visual archive of this subculture, a historic collection representing the culture of basketball, celebrating the infinite ways the game has been translated into art by people all over the world.

Each piece unique on its own, but collectively, and along with the beautiful writing by Ben Osborne, the book tells a different and vitally important story about the games influence.

Click here to view and purchase available prints or contact me directly if you’d like a basketball print of any photograph not already listed.

The Hidden Hoops of Venice Beach: Basketball Art in the Alleyways

Just a few blocks away from the oceanfront courts of Venice Beach, a different kind of basketball exists. Tucked into alleyways and mounted to the sides of telephone poles and back walls, these hoops are built from scrap wood, bent metal, and whatever materials happen to be on hand. They aren’t part of any official court or league—they’re improvised, functional, and entirely rooted in the creativity of the neighborhood.

These photographs document a series of handmade basketball hoops throughout Venice—objects that blur the line between sport, necessity, and art.

Basketball Hoops Built from Junk: Functional Street Art

Nick Ansom is at the helm of the Venice Basketball League. 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 Lori Powers, 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 now it will be preserved in some kind of document for people to see years from now.

A Different Side of Venice Beach Basketball

Most people associate Venice Beach Basketball Courts with loud rowdy games, eccentric locals, and a constant flow of tourist spectators looking for a show. But the game doesn’t stop at the edge of the courts.

It continues in quieter places—out of view, away from the crowds—where the structure of the game is stripped down to its simplest form: a hoop, a ball, and a small piece of space to play.

These alleyway hoops reflect that side of basketball. Informal, resourceful, and entirely local.

Part of the American Backcourts Project

These photographs are part of a long-term body of work documenting basketball hoops across the United States. Over the past 15 years, the project has focused on the overlooked places where the game exists—rural driveways, barns, small towns, and improvised courts like these in Venice.While the settings change, the idea remains the same: basketball shows up wherever people find a way to build a hoop.

View the American Backcourts series

Collecting Basketball Hoop Photography Prints

A selection of these photographs is available as fine art prints, produced on museum-grade paper for collectors, interior designers, and spaces looking to incorporate basketball culture in a more understated way.

View the full Basketball Hoop Photography collection here

See More Venice Beach Basketball

While these alleyway hoops offer a quieter perspective, the main courts of Venice Beach remain one of the most iconic places to watch and play the game.

View from Venice Beach basketball culture and courts here