The ZACC is delighted to present ‘Three River Sonata’, works by our Laura Grace Barrett Print Shop Artist in Residence Leland Buck, in the ‘Phantom’ Gallery (located just outside the ZACC print shop on the second floor) – opening First Friday, December 2 from 5-8 PM and exhibiting throughout the month of the December. ‘Three River Sonata’ is composed of polymer gravure prints of the Clark Fork, Bitterroot, & Blackfoot Rivers.

Leland Buck was introduced to photography as a teenager growing up in southern Colorado. He holds a B.A. degree from the University of Montana where he studied Russian Languages and Literature and European History. Following college he moved to Los Angeles and worked in film and television, then after returning to Colorado, began a career in technology, publishing and journalism.

Leland’s photographs are taken with 4x5 and 8x10 large format cameras and are printed using numerous 19th-century printing techniques including cyanotype, kallitype, platinum/palladium, gum prints, and photogravure. Since March of 2020 and through the COVID-19 pandemic, Leland has traveled extensively throughout the Western U.S. as he has explored the vital but fragile role of water in the western American environment. Much of his work has been focused on riverscapes of the Clark Fork Watershed and the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, and Clark Fork Rivers. The Three River Sonata project is a result of that work. This project was largely photographed with orthochromatic X-Ray film developed in Leland’s own formula of Caffenol — a non-toxic developer made from Vitamin C, washing soda and instant coffee — and is printed using non-toxic polymer gravure plates with solvent-free inks.

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