Mihai Ciama (born 1977) is a Romanian photographer based in Cluj-Napoca. Trained as an engineer, he approaches photography as a form of escape from routine and as a way to explore people, places, and fragments of everyday life.
Working primarily in street, documentary, and travel photography, his images focus on candid, unstaged moments observed in available light. He is particularly drawn to rural environments, where he seeks to capture expressions of community life, subtle human interactions, and the fragile balance between tradition and contemporary change.
His work moves between Romanian rural landscapes and international locations, exploring the relationship between people and their surroundings—whether in Transylvanian villages, urban spaces, or places situated at the edge of modernization. Rather than pursuing spectacle, his photographs favor quiet narratives and the dignity of ordinary moments.
Mihai studied photography at the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca and continued his education through workshops with photographers he deeply admires, including Nikos Economopoulos, Georgui Pinkhassov , Cosmin Bumbuț.
He is a co-founder of the EyePatch Collective and actively contributes to organizing Momentum, a monthly photography meeting series aimed at fostering dialogue, cohesion, and growth within the photographic community of Cluj-Napoca and beyond.
His work has been recognized internationally, reaching finalist selections in competitions such as The Independent Photographer Street Photography Award (2021), Miami Street Photography Festival (2019), HIPA (2018), and the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest (2020).
