PART3 / TEAMcountry, New York City. Working in Manhattan offered her top
talent to represent and provided a vast array of accounts to
develop. After many years servicing national talent and adver-
tising clients, Patti has chosen to shift her business and addi-
tionally represent the fine art as well as the commercial work
that photographers create.
“I have been representing commercial photographers for
over fifteen years and have always been drawn to photogra-
phers’ fine-art work but never quite sure how to pursue that as
a business,” Patti explains.I started to feel restless with the commercial world,
I wanted to find a way to branch out. By talking to
various people in the photo industry, I realized that I
could create a company where I would represent pho-
tographers’ fine art, selling their artwork to corpora-
tions, hotels, spas, hospitals, interior designers, and
architects. This was a totally new world for me, some-
thing other than advertising agencies, graphic design
firms, and magazines.Was this veteran ad agent ready to break new ground? “It
was a little scary to think about starting from zero, as I was
entering into an area I knew little about,” states Silverstein. “But
somehow all the pieces began to fall into place, which for me is
always a sign that I am on the right path.”
So how does a veteran agent, one with a track record of
many years, reposition herself in a new arena?I knew one thing right from the start. I knew that my
focus was going to be to represent art that people could
look at and instantly feel calm and soothed by. It’s impor-
tant to me at this stage of my life to spend my time on
work that affects others positively. People need a chance
during their busy days to take a break, to stop a moment
to regroup and refocus. My goal is to provide them with
imagery that will enable them the opportunity to take
that breath. For that reason I chose a tagline for my
new company that reflected my mantra, and it is quite
literally “Take a Breath.”Chapter 14.qxd 6/25/07 7:19 AM Page 88