Farm Home by Cotton Field, Plymouth, North Carolina

Bill Bamberger photographs outdoor basketball hoops around the world. His pictures underscore the popularity of a game that is relatively simple in its structure. One needs only a ball and a hoop to play. The hoop may or may not have a net or a backboard. It might be suspended above painted asphalt or a bare patch of ground. Bamberger’s images of hoops don’t depict people, but they evoke the players who have used them. Collectively, the images highlight the universality of a game that is played by rich and poor, formally and informally, in countless places.