under the KNIFE

DR. BENJAMIN CAMPOMANES' photographs in “Death to Fruits” pay tribute to fallen colleagues.

- AUDREY CARPIO

THERE'S A SURGICAL PRECISION TO THE WAY THE KNIFE IS IMPALED IN THE CENTER OF THE FRUIT, LEAVING IT INTACT. Rather than slicing through the flesh, as a knife is supposed to do, it becomes part of the fruit, embedded in an assemblage of steel, skin, and wood. Dr. Benjamin Campomanes “Death to Fruits” series approaches classical still life composition with a contemporary, minimalist edge, conveying the sense of mortality in a memento mori. Created during the first year of the pandemic, the photographs began with the durian and cleaver, apt symbols of the healthcare workers who, despite all their protective armor, succumbed to COVID-19.

Freezing the moment where metal meets fruit was the doctor’s own way of dealing with the trauma of losing so many colleagues. As chief medical officer of the St. Luke's Medical Center system, Campomanes was responsible for taking care of two hospitals during the most harrowing health crisis of our generation.

His wife Mae, a pulmonologist, was on COVID duty for 10 days at a time, and would come home with heartbreaking stories of patients dying in isolation, unable to see their loved ones. Campomanes photographed nearly 50 different fruits, a haunting reminder of the devastating human toll of the pandemic.