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When women everywhere read “Eat, Pray, Love,” the idea of leaving the hustle and bustle of a working girl’s world behind became a shared fantasy. The 2006 book may have inspired many, but Maria Camoratto created her own unique journey without the aid of the New York Times best-seller.
“I came to point in time where I was in living in New York City, I had a very good job and a nice apartment and, I just thought, ‘This is it?’” Camoratto said.
Her self-reflection put plans to trek across India for three months — eventually extended to six — into motion. The art history buff and long-time photographer snapped countless pictures throughout her journey that she turned into a 21-print exhibit being featured through the end of April at Black N Brew, 1523 E. Passyunk Ave.
“I didn’t choose the ones most personal to me as the ones that are most compelling,” Camoratto said.
Clearing out her apartment upon departure and subletting it to a friend, it was clear Camoratto had no intention of moving back to her old way of doing things.
“Very quickly in India I decided I was making all these subtle changes and big changes and if I went back to New York I’d pick up where I left off,” Camoratto said. “And that was not the intention.”
Upon her return last fall, she moved into her mother’s childhood home at 11th and Tasker streets to get her bearings. However, she got more than she bargained for.
“I love it. I love it. I really am enjoying it. [South Philly] is at a really nice stage of development — a developing community,” Camoratto said. “It has everything. I can walk to the organic green deli on Passyunk, or I can go to the ACME a block away. There is a farmer’s market in the summertime.”
Though both parents are from the area — meeting at a her maternal grandfather’s pharmacy at 11th and Annin streets — Camoratto grew up the sixth of six children in Marlton, N.J. Assimilating into the local community has been an adventure akin to the trek she took through India, and one Camoratto enjoys on a daily basis.
“I just attended my first East Passyunk Crossing meeting, so, yes, I am looking to get more involved [in the community],” Camoratto said.
She noted her art exhibit is a chance to explore the community in a unique way and make an impression on the new neighborhood.
“In looking at [the photos I displayed] now, I chose a lot of people and I was surprised. I don’t take images of people if they don’t know it, so many of the people in India would pose and they were really great about it,” Camoratto said, adding the impetus for her journey was to do “something that was fulfilling for me — if I’m not going to take the traditional path and if that’s not really what was happening right now, I want to do something equally satisfying.”
After graduating from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. in 1993 with a bachelor’s in art history, Camoratto took a year off to manage a handcrafted art store in Philadelphia.
“It was in Liberty Place. We sold upscale, high-end art crafts,” she said of the Center City-based business.
The following year brought the artist to the Newark-based New Jersey Institute of Technology for a master’s in architecture. With degree in hand, Camoratto decided to do what she does best: Travel.
“I was a Peace Corps volunteer and I wound up staying in El Salvador for three years,” Camoratto, who spent some additional time abroad in Costa Rica, said. “I love to travel. You bring a little bit of you to them and them to you — bring a bit of their culture home with you.”
Snapping pictures during all of her journeys, Camoratto has walked a fine line between artist and architect, often meshing the two into one profession.
“I worked for Mia Lin, she did the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. She was very influential [on my work].” Camoratto said. “She was green before anyone else was green. She is interested in how it makes people feel — with architecture and art my interest has always been how does it affect the community.
“I have a lot of gifts that I’ve gotten in my life and you want to give some of that back to the community.”
Since the start of her professional work, Camoratto has been committed to using her skills to help those less fortunate. In New York City, she was a senior project manager for a company that rehabbed foreclosed houses and working with the owners to subsidize and fund renovating the property.
“I enjoyed the work but there was a point in time when I was too young not to do anything more,” she said.
When Camoratto left on her spiritual journey that took her to the country’s southern tip before a flight back north to further explore the Himalayas, the Tibetan resettlement and an encounter with the Dalai Lama, she never pictured East Passyunk as her final destination.
“My family is from Philly, but if you had asked me two years ago if I was going to buy my mother’s home, I would have said, ‘No way, I live in New York!” Camoratto, who purchased the dwelling from her aunt in November, said.
However, the attraction was too strong to deny.
“I was staying here when I was interviewing and figuring things out,” Camoratto, who turned down a job in San Francisco, after falling in love with the area, said. “It very quickly felt like home.”
The new digs are an odd meeting of old and new. Bringing in her own furnishings, Camoratto also kept her mother’s former bedroom set and a Hollywood-style boudoir that her grandfather owned. With family down the street and her parents the closest they have been since Camoratto left home at age 18, discovering Philadelphia has been an extension of her enlightening that started in India.
“It’s an exciting learning curve,” Camoratto said. “You have to get to know your way around and get to know the people.”
Carving out a place in her new home, Camoratto took a job with the Philadelphia Housing Authority as senior architect and is teaching yoga classes at HawthorneYoga and Reiki, 1241 Carpenter St., after getting her certification at intensives during her trip to India.
The Black N Brew show marks the beginning of Camoratto’s integration into the community and talks with the Santore Library, Seventh and Carpenter streets, have begun about displaying some of her prints there, as well.
“[The show at Black N Brew] was part of placing my roots in a new community. I consider myself an artist, using the terms loosely,” Camoratto said. “It was a place in my neighborhood and it’s only two blocks away from me.”
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