We last heard about Jean Malek teaming up with digital agency TP1 last May when they threw down some great looking work for the Montréal Fringe Festival. Well this fine pairing is back together with some new work starring one of the agency’s most influential and fuzzy employees – Seal Of Approval!
Photographer: Jean Malek
Client: TP1
Assistant: Sébastien Roussel
To learn more about Seal of Approval and everything it does at TP1, go check out it’s Facebook page!
Image © Jean Malek
by Matt on January 17, 2013
They say ‘what goes around comes around’, and the following work from Jean Malek expresses the sentiment quite well. As a citizens group based in Montréal, Les Affranchies (The Freed) is at the forefront of Québec’s fight against human trafficking. Working with BCP Agency and our French Connection, the group has launched a new campaign in their efforts to stop sexploitation. After we take a look at the work we’ll pass it off to Malek who can tell you more about the shoot.
Photographer: Jean Malek
Client: Les Affranchies
Agency: BCP Montréal
Creative Director / Copywriter: Étienne Bastien
Assistant Creative Director / Art Director: Jonathan Rouxel
Make-Up: Marianne Caron
Wardrobe: Marie-Claude Guay
Set Stylist: Susan MacQuarrie
Assistants: Sébastien Roussel & Julia-Maria Daigneault
Well… to be honest if I was to sum up this shoot in one word, it would be: challenging. I’ll explain.
First I had to find talent that was the perfect fit for the role – he had to have that little something in his expression that could look a bit “off”. Added to the difficulty of finding the right person was the fact that the role of ‘Sexual Predator’ isn’t highly sought out by many models, especially when they will be recognizable in the finished print.
Our next next obstacle fell mostly on my stylist Marie-Claude. She had to find an outfit that looked like a dress for a younger girl, but make it fit on a 45 year old man. Despite the serious nature of the shoot, the fitting with our talent was pretty funny.
Our biggest challenge was finding a location that we could turn into the grimy, run down type of prison we had envisioned. After a lot of scouting, I eventually found an old parking garage that was just right for the job. If you need to find a parking garage in Montréal let me know, haha, I’ve seen them all. ~MALEK
For more info on The Freed and what they do for the province of Québec, go check out their website. Big thanks to Jean for sharing!
Image © Jean Malek
by Matt on December 19, 2012
As we approach the end of the working year and enter the joyous time of holiday vacation we would like to use this final TGIW of 2012 to remind you all to have a happy and safe time away from the workplace. For instance, should you find yourself dealing with electrical wiring outdoors in the cold and wet snow – use caution – you could get electrocuted, as implied by this latest image from Jean Malek for Hydro-Québec.
Photographer: Jean Malek
Client: Hydro-Québec
Agency: LG2
Producer: Jerome Couture
Retouching: Visual Box
Assistants: Seb Roussel & Will Cole
Image © Jean Malek
by Matt on September 17, 2012
Centraide is an independent organization that services the greater Montréal area by raising donations from the public which in turn go on to support a web of services that aid more than 500,000 individuals living below the poverty line within the city.
With the location that they service in consideration, it only makes sense that this week the Blog is kicking of the week with Jean Malek and the team at Publicis Montréal. For those who do not parle français the copy on the ads reads, “Donating is uplifting”, and with that we present this latest work from Monsieur Malek.
Photographer: Jean Malek
Client: Centraide of Greater Montréal
Agency: Publicis
Creative Directors: Nicolas Massey & Carl Robichau
Art Director: Bogdan Truta
Copywriter: Mike Aronson
Stylist: Marie-Claude Guay
Hair & Make-up: Catherine Lavoie
Assistant: Sébastien Roussel
Now we view Malek‘s work as the inhabitants of greater Montreal get to!
Images © Jean Malek
by Matt on September 6, 2012
Upon first seeing the images from todays post I immediately got the urge to provide the option of listening to the song, “I’m On A Shopping Spree”, in the background. This continued to seem a good idea until last night when I sat down and actually studied the prose of young Soulja Boy, which proved to serve no purpose on this blog, nor alongside the fine work of Jean Malek.
Despite the lack of his tunes, Soulja Boy might do well to take note of Jean’s latest work – as like every after-school kid in Repentigny, Quebec knows – there’s a serious mall in town. With 130+ shops and boutiques, Galeries Rive-Nord sounds like suburban Montréal’s very own Eaton Center; and for the malls’ campaign, Ma Ville – Mon Style, Malek was at the Canon’s helm.
In addition to the choice photographic skills, there’s something to be said for Jean’s fine attention to the details when it comes to bringing the layouts to life; as you can see and compare here with these illustrations from EM Agency.
Photographer: Jean Malek
Client: Les Galeries Rive-Nord
Agency: EM Agency
Art Director: Maïa Wallis
Copyrighter: Christine Plante
Hair & Makeup: Felicie Hubert
Stylist: Marie-Claude Guay
Assistants: JF Lamoureux, Nicholas Lafontaine, Julien Cloutier-Labbé & Constance Massicotte
Wondering what happened to the crying kid on the boardwalk? He was just sad that he missed the cut.
Images © Malek
Layouts © EM Agency
by Matt on August 21, 2012
TheFWA, or Favorite Website Awards, began shortly into the new millennia and ever since then, the website has been showcasing the best of The Web on a daily basis. The site is the highest ranking website award program on the interweb, and back in 2009 they launched a new website – FWAPhoto – where each day vistors get a fresh dose of photography from a selected picture maker.
So why am I talking about TheFWA and their offspring FWAPhoto? Well, while checking out the overview of selected images for this month, I noticed a familiar frame and was pleased to find work from Jean Malek as the Photo of the Day for August 18th!
The image is from Jean’s series, The Secretary, shot as a personal creative but later published by SNAP!, a free art, fashion, and culture magazine available quarterly here in Canada. A quick word from Malek before we get into the good stuff.
The Secretary marked the beginning of my exploration of cinematic framing within photography. My inspiration for the creative series came from the Steven Shainberg film of the same name, and a huge thanks goes out to Shayl Prisk at SNAP! for including this work in their pages. Hope you enjoy!
All Images © Malek
A few weeks back I was listening to the ol’ short-wave at home, and while I can’t be certain, I’m pretty sure awards shows are like baseball games where you can tune in to a local AM station and listen to a play-by-play of whats happening at the gala, complete with a Vin Scully-esque announcer. It may have just been the delirious heat level of my apartment, but I found myself on the edge of my seat as the booming voice from the box called out some familiar names. I jotted down as much as I could, and so to close out this steamy summer month, we’ll read through my short transcript of the,
Holding strong and true at first base is Andrew B. Myers, who’s work with DDB for Historica-Dominion received Bronze in Public Service: Single (Press/Out-Of-Home).
Sittin’ pretty on second is Chris Gordaneer with a Bronze M for he and MacLaren McCann’s Out-Of-Home: Campaign (Point-Of-Purchase) for Precision Laser Tattoo Removal.
With eyes on home, Jean Malek and Publicis Montreal’s work for Belron Canada has the extraordinary frenchman holding third with a Bronze in Magazine: Single.
Looking to bring the boys home with a big dinger, stepping up to the plate is Frank Hoedl and Leo Burnett Toronto, who’s campaign for Raising The Roof took Gold in Public Service: Campaign, as well as a Silver for Public Service: Single (Press/Out-Of-Home – Red Chair).
At this point there was some interference from my hipster neighbours’ pirate radio station and I lost the signal so I’m unsure if Frank hit that big dinger; but what I do know is that we here at Westside are proud of all our boys for their achievements and want to throw up a hard hitting high-five to all those involved in the shoots. Click on any of the images to get the full story on the works.
Images © Respective Photographers
The Montréal Fringe Festival kicks off its 22nd year this coming June and through the support of McAuslan Breweries and other sponsors, the festival will present over 700 non-mainstream performances from over 500 theatre, comedy, dance, music, and visual artists. As per usual with a festival of Fringe, all artists are selected at random through lottery, 60% of those being Québécois; toss in a disregard for performance censorship, along with a hint of dwindling student protest, and we’ve got ourselves a two week long party!
For this years promotional piece, Montréal based digital agency TP1 employed the photographically skilled Monsieur Malek to bring their poster to life. Here’s a look at Malek‘s work.
The team at TP1 put together strait goods look at the day spent with Jean at the Mainline Theater, one of the many locations playing host to this years festival. Listen close at the end of the video and you can even hear Malek speak! Enjoy.
Happy Monday kids.
Image © Malek
BTS Video © TP1
Since 2006, Quebec media group Infopresse Publishing, with support from both the Association of Quebec Advertising Agencies (AAPQ) and Quebecor, have been hosting the competition CRÉA, which celebrates the best of creative advertising within Quebec. The award show takes place at the end of March and brings over 1,500 individuals from the advertising world under one roof to schmooze and enjoy themselves, all while getting a chance to review the best works of the year.
The categories awarded at CRÉA run the typical gauntlet, TV to Print and everything in-between; that is until their final award(s) of the evening which are given to specific “Artisans”, or individuals who excelled in their specific fields. Typically only one or two grand prizes are given out in the Artisan category and this year our very own Jean Malek was celebrated as Photographer of the year.
I asked Malek about his big night,
I was awarded for my Federation of Medical Practitioners of Québec campaign! It is a great honor for me to have been selected as one of CRÉA’s Artists of the Year, so a huge thanks to everyone at Infopresse and to the team at BCP who worked with me on the campaign. Overall the night was a great success and I couldn’t have been more excited or proud!
Here’s a look at the awarded image, followed by the juror note regarding their decision.
The quality of photography adds an emotional touch to the campaign. It thus provides another dimension to the story, according to the jury.
HUGE congrats to Malek on his achievement!
Image © Malek
by Matt on February 14, 2012
Being Valentines Day and all, Shelley and I thought it would be fun to go through our computers and try and capture the essence of love within the confines of our photographers portfolios. Some are direct selects from current portfolios. Some we dove a bit deeper into the catalogues. Nonetheless, ALL of todays images are our way of asking, will you be our valentine?
♥ Andrew B. Myers
♥ Chris Gordaneer
♥ Tom Feiler
♥ Frank Hoedl
♥ George Simhoni
♥ Tyler Gray
♥ Jean Malek 
♥ Matt Barnes
♥ Nikki Ormerod
♥ Russell Monk
♥ Ryan Enn Hughes
♥ Shanghoon
♥ Derek Shapton
♥ Vicky Lam
As we browsed through the works of our shooters, our eye’s tuned to the frequency of love, I thought it might be nice to attempt some reader/ writer interaction and pit 3 of our Cupids‘ against one another in capture-to-capture combat. So dear readers, it is to you we leave the choice:
Whom of three couples pictured below, would you like to spend your Valentines Day with?
George Simhoni
Matt Barnes
Nikki Ormerod
The choice is yours!
For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.
All Images © Respective Photographers
Photographer: Jean Malek
