PPB October 2021

FIVE MINUTES WITH Patty Ann Watson Founder Patty’s People Pictures Strength In Numbers Patty’s People Pictures brings together groups of people, sometimes as large as 1,000 or more, to arrange and capture colorful, brilliantly memorable photographs to encourage patriotism and unity in local communities. The Hamburg, New York, service, which she started after September 11, 2001 to honor those who passed in the terrorist attacks, is the first in a family of businesses which also include BuffaLove Apparel, a distributor with a retail store in Buffalo, New York, and BuffaBlend Smoothie, a smoothie shop within the store, with products available in Wegmen’s supermarkets. Patty’s People Pictures is the brainchild of aerial photographer and former nurse Patty Ann Watson, who has taken 110 images— which are orchestrated and carried out by a team and taken aerially by standing on a lift above—for local schools and businesses, and for major organizations like the Buffalo Bills and Susan G. Komen. On average, each image includes 750 to 1,500 volunteers who are grouped to create formations of well- known symbols, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, the American flag and the freedom eagle, and words, such as “heroes,” “American,” USA” and “I Love New York” with “love” represented as a heart. Mugs and small, large and mounted prints featuring these images are available to purchase in Patty’s People Pictures’ online store. PPB spoke with Patty Ann Watson to learn more about Patty’s People Pictures. PPB What inspired the start of Patty’s People Pictures? Watson I had four children in school at the time, and I wanted to inspire patriotism in children. I was fortunate to work with the schools my children attended, initially, to create photos that were patriotic. We did everything from the Statue of Liberty to the flag, to “USA.” The children were required to wear red, white or blue shirts. Each classroom was assigned a color and we used that to arrange them in the formation. We did those photos for many years. We started it as an anniversary project held around Flag Day and it became a tradition at our schools, and then other area schools reached out to me about it. Buffalo was also revitalizing our city and was wild about our new waterfront and would hold events to bring visitors downtown to see the waterfront. I really wanted to celebrate Buffalo in a big way and create an image that would correspond with celebrating our city, so that photo was open to the public. We did six of those back-to- back, known as BuffaLove Day, which was held this year on July 26. The first 100 attendees to register for the free event, which was held at the Buffalo Waterfront, received a free t-shirt, and one of the key attractions was the option to pose in front of the BuffaLove selfie station for the chance to be featured in a BuffaLove mosaic—a safer alternative to the usual large group photo. I love it so much and it’s so fun. When we create our buffalo formation, we have 75 volunteers—and we assemble in seven minutes, by the way. That’s our goal. We’ll preassemble in 25 minutes beforehand, but when we reassemble it’s always in seven minutes. PPB What are some of the unique ways your clients have used the experience and creations of Patty’s People Pictures to feature their message—and the overall message of patriotism? Watson The clients—for example, a hospital—use it for social media. The hospital still has their image (a beating heart) atop their Facebook page, where 66 | OCTOBER 2021 | THINK