Jacques Olivar was born in Casablanca. As a young man, he went to flight school to become an airline pilot. However, the immense pleasure he got from flying airplanes didn’t avert his overflowing passion for images. The beginning of his photographic career was met with rapid success, thanks to his photography work ib the advertising campaign for DIM stockings. He was awarded "First Prize" from the highly presigious "Club DES Directeurs Artistiques" (Art Directors Club) for his work on this campaign. In the years that followed, he reveived this prize several times again. In 1984, he was also awarded the esteemed" Grand Prix Strategies" (Grand Prize For Design Strategy) for the best advertising campaign of the year as well as the "First Prize" from the "Art Directors Club" for his photographic work on JOIS JEANS.