5 Years of Film?

Today I received the final shipment of my big (panic buy after hearing the word BANKRUPT!) Kodak Tri-x order. I now have 75 cans of 100 foot Tri-x 35mm, and 1100 sheets of 4x5 Tri-x along with about 600 sheets of 5x7 Tri-x that I had from before. I think I saved money on this deal as Kodak raised their prices again soon after I had made the order.

I am not sure how long this film will last before I shoot it all up but I expect the 35mm to last 5 years or longer (10 years?), the 4x5 and 5x7 might go faster. Now its all the film is safely stored away in my upright freezer. I hope I can do justice to this film and have some of it become valuable negatives. Its strange but I sort of feel like I owe it to the film, I owe the film a good image so that it can live on as an important neg. Crazy shit when you start feeling you owe the film the chance to fulfill its purpose in an important way, and when you think/say stuff to the film like "Were going to do something good together, lets create something wonderful." If I can make a good photograph with the film then that little piece of plastic coated emulsion can live on and on in an important way as a negative, something that is valued and printed with love and care.

I wish I could have bought some 8x10 Tri-x but I only had so much money and it was very hard to scratch that together. I might have to go to HP5 for my 8x10 work to save money. I will try some HP5 8x10 when I photograph my father for the "My Father At 80" series in the coming days.