Self-Portrait
The architectural photographer Barbara Karant turns her camera on her house in Bucktown—and on her rescued greyhounds.
(page 5 of 6)
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Later in the afternoon, beside the tower, at Karant's walnut dining table by Ralph Rapson, we look at material for two books she has in progress. The first will feature photos of greyhounds, which Karant has been taking since 1999, soon after she got Slim. "Everything about them is aerodynamic, and they're sexy dogs," Karant says. They are so long and curvaceous that in the photos they often seem to be more of an aesthetically refined abstraction than real. "And they're sweet," Karant adds. "They're demonstrative but not in a pushy way."
The working title for the second book, a collaboration between Karant and the writer Yvonne Zipter, is Greyhound: The Evolution of a Breed. In what Karant calls her unspare time, she and her business partner, Laura Dion-Jones, develop products for their Web site Snob Hounds, which sells collars, leashes, and apparel (a percentage goes to rescue groups). "Snob Hounds is like Nike meets Donna Karan," Karant says. "It's functional layered clothing for the dogs." But one jazzy number came from elsewhere.
Among the greyhound photos, I find a shot of Slim dressed for a Halloween gathering in a Hawaiian shirt much like one of Karant's own. He has a lei around his neck. He looks festive and ready to roll.
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Photography: Barbara Karant; photo styling by Diane Ewing
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