I'm Efrem Fitts most people know me as Purp a photographer, filmmaker, designer, and photo retoucher based in Long Beach, California.

It started with watching the artists in my family. My dad was always drawing, sculpting, painting always making something. My uncles were the same way, each pulled toward a different medium, from painting to photography. Growing up around that, I was always drawing too, quietly, rarely showing anyone. But there was always a camera nearby, and every time one showed up, I'd put the pencil down and pick the camera up instead.

What pulled me in was the idea that a camera could freeze time that I could take a single moment and hold onto it, go back to it whenever I wanted. I started taking photos of everything: funny shots of friends, moments with the people I love, anything worth remembering. It wasn't really about the photo itself. It was about immortalizing not just the moment, but the people living inside it.

That's still what photography does for me. It's how I make memories permanent I think that is super important especially nowadays. And it ended up being the real starting point for everything else I do as a creative design, film, retouching, all of it grew out of that same feeling I found first behind a camera I followed it and still do today.

Close to a decade in, I still work the way I started: hands-on, across every stage of a project. I shoot, I edit, I retouch, I design, I animate. Sometimes all four on the same job, sometimes just the one piece someone needs done right. I've never really believed in staying in one lane, and the more I've worked, the more I've found that the disciplines feed each other. A layout instinct from design work shows up in how I frame a shot. An eye trained on color grading shows up in how I light a video. Nothing I do lives in isolation.

Photography is where most of it starts for me. I shoot portrait, lifestyle, product, and live event work, and I don't think of editing as a separate step from shooting. The retouching, the color grade, the skin work, the consistency across a set, all of that is part of how I see the image before I even press the shutter. I pay attention to lighting, subjects setting, time of day. it all plays a part in capturing that final image and telling the story that I want to tell. One frame can show the viewer a lot. It’s more so up to me how I want to tell it, or show what I am envisioning myself. There’s many different perspectives I can tell a story from and I find that unique.

Filmmaking and video let me stretch that same instinct across time instead of a single frame concept, shooting, editing, delivery, usually solo, for artists, brands, and live events who need someone who can carry a project start to finish without losing the thread.

Design is where I got my start putting a message into a shape. Most visibly, that's meant designing published spreads for Undrgrnd Magazine, PSD Underwear, Institches, and more. But it shows up anywhere a brand needs an identity, a campaign, or a layout that actually holds together.

And 3D design and animation is where I go when I want to build something that doesn't exist yet — modeling and rendering original assets and motion pieces that push past what a camera alone can capture.

At the end of the day, I care about the final product being right — not rushed, not generic, not somebody else's template. That's true whether it's one retouched portrait or a full campaign. I'm not doing five different things because I can't commit to one. I'm doing them because I've learned they all talk to each other, and the work is better for it.

Let's create something beautiful together.

PURRRP!!!