Mihai Rotaru - C1 Tei

Mihai Rotaru – C1 Tei

“The project presents a personal experience of the five years spent living in “C1 Tei” student hostel. Between 2007 and 2013 I changed three rooms and several roommates. All these years I had been constantly taking photographs of them which present not only their lives and moments spent together, but also what I came to regard as a way of life.

It all started like a game. Having photography as hobby, I repeatedly photographed my friends and roommates in various moments so I could get rid of my fear of taking photographs of people and to also develop a stronger connection with them. The longer I stayed with them, the more I was able to capture their characters as naturally as possible, and at the same time I became a silent observer and photographer. After some time, they were almost ignoring my camera. During my first year of living there, I collected a series of photographs and I realised that I was illustrating interesting stories for me and my roommates. Then I decided to continue photographing over the next years to complete some of the stories which made up my experience as a student.”

Mihai Rotaru

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More images and other stories on cargocollective.com/mihairotaru. Mihai Rotaru was born in 1988, Ploiești, Romania. “Working mostly on film cameras, I enjoy composing patiently in a frame the reality I live. I like both photojournalism and fine-art photography and my aim is to gently combine them.”