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From urban playgrounds to small-town alleyways and windswept barnyards, basketball is a universal American experience and worldwide cultural touchstone. Renowned photojournalist Robin Layton captures that shared community, as well as the diversity and astonishing beauty surrounding this simple iron ring in hoop, a loving look at basketball at its most elemental level: the basket.
by Robin Layton
Foreword by Jerry West
Sports / Photography / Basketball
Hardback
9.25 x 12.25 inches
180 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57687-671-8
$40 US/CAN
From urban playgrounds to small-town alleyways and windswept barnyards, basketball is a universal American experience and worldwide cultural touchstone. Renowned photojournalist Robin Layton captures that shared community, as well as the diversity and astonishing beauty surrounding this simple iron ring in hoop, a loving look at basketball at its most elemental level: the basket.
hoop includes approximately 100 stunning photographs of a wide variety of American hoops, from humble garage and street courts around the country to the open-air White House court. Layton’s photographs offer a breathtaking view of the weathered dreams, fading memories, and future glories hanging from solitary backboards around the country. Her images of hoops run the gamut: some mundane and abandoned, others the childhood hoops of celebrated players such as Shaquille O’Neal, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Sue Bird, and more documenting the altars upon which they laid their dreams, honed their skills, and made a first splash in the game. She has photographed hoop shrines like New York’s Rucker Park playground and tiny Milan High (the real-life underdog school that inspired the movie Hoosiers). The large-format color images are accompanied by personal quotes from coaches and players past and present about the game of basketball and the significance of particular hoops in their lives, notably from Mike Krzyzewski, Robin Roberts, Gary Payton, Danny Manning, and Rebecca Lobo among others.
hoop is not just another book about basketball, nor is it another roundup of action photos. It is an artful portrait of an American institution and a poignant vision of an American landscape for anyone passionate about the sport.
Robin Layton is an artist, filmmaker, and has been a photojournalist for the past 25 years. At age 24, she was named one of the eight most talented photographers in America by LIFE magazine. Her documentary images have been featured by the Smithsonian and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. After an award-winning career in newspapers, including key positions with The Virginian-Pilot and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Robin embarked on a freelance career that has taken her on documentary assignments around the world—photographing everything from street people to presidents. She is the author of A Letter to My Dog: Notes to Our Best Friends (Chronicle, 2012).
