In 2017, American photographer Austin Bell visited Choi Hung Estate, a public housing estate in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district that is also an Instagram hotspot popular with residents and tourists, who flock there to photograph its colourful facade.
It was his first visit to the city and, like many, he was captivated by the vibrant hues of the estate’s buildings, which were named Choi Hung after the Cantonese for “rainbow”.
But what really struck a chord were the bold patterns covering the estate’s basketball courts.
“I flew a drone over them and it transformed into a geometric work of art that you could only see from above,” he says.
The courts were in stark contrast to the bland asphalt surfaces found in America, he says.
The vibrant imagery, which aligned with his love of novel aerial perspectives and architecture, sent his mind spinning. “How many more like this existed in the city?” he asked himself.