The Beloved Movement {Jesh de Rox}

There is an amazing movement going on right now in what I like to call "The Wonderful World of Photography." This movement can change everything we know about true emotion in photography. It teaches us how to bring out the inner joys of our clients. This is something that I want to make a goal in my photography over the next year. To stretch myself in order to see my clients beloved.

History of the Movement

While exploring ways to create more authentic portraits of his clients, in the summer of 2006 a wedding photographer named Jesh de Rox stumbled across a technique he now refers to as experiential photography.

While the technique was successful in inviting his clients to genuine expression, something amazing and unexpected happened – the couples he worked with began telling him the sessions were enabling them to experience an intense increase in their connection that lingered long after the session was over. Some went so far as to describe the experience as ‘life-changing’ and ‘one of the best days of their life’.

Intrigued and excited by this, Jesh took a sabbatical from wedding photography to explore what he called Beloved sessions. The concept was to explore photography as a means to celebrate and renew relationship, the emphasis being to create the ideal environment for the couple to experience each other. Instead of taking images of people and trying to make them look happy or in love, he focused on inviting them to a place where they were feeling incredible joy and deep love,  acutely aware of their connection with one another, and then capturing those powerful, genuine expressions.

Jesh’s early exploration in this new direction was an incredible success and he began researching the possibility of establishing a new genre of photography dedicated to this experiential work, so that photographers everywhere could be able to both experience and offer this gift  to couples around the world.

His research culminated in March, 2010, where he rocked the house at the world’s largest photography convention. During the speech, Jesh officially launched the Beloved Movement, sharing the concept and the name to all who were drawn to it and inviting and challenging us to continue the exploration.  The energy in the room was electrifying and the ignited attendees quickly spread the fire.

Inspired by the incredible potential for the movement, Carolyn Wells & Nicole Polk joined forces to create theBelovedMovement.org – a home for the growing number of Beloved explorers, offering a support network for photographers and a vehicle to get the message out to the general public.

Psychology of Love

The photography sessions that are wrapped into The Beloved Movement are about much more than what we normally think of when we hear ‘portrait session’. In addition to the understanding of aesthetics and technical, business, and relationship skills that are required of a professional photographer, the beloved session brings in another level of psychological understanding that is not currently common in the industry.

While photographers in the field are exploring the psychology of love and integrating it into their work, we will also be exploring the subject more in-depth on our website, intermingling photographers’ images with contributions provided by supporting fields of work.  We are inviting professionals and organizations in related fields to contribute their expertise by posting articles, videos, and relevant links.

Especially of interest to our beloved movement is the work by Dr Robert Epstein, a contributing editor for Scientific American Mind lecturer at the University of California San Diego, and founder and Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts.

• Keeping Love Alive (Scientific Amercan article)
• Fall in Love and Stay That Way (Scientific American MIND article)

{All credit for information on the Beloved Movement belongs to Jesh de Rox, Carolyn Wells & Nicole Polk}