Michal Cala was born in 1948 in Torun. Having graduated from Warsaw Polytechnics, he moved to Tychy and from 1978 to 1992 he photographed landscapes of Silesia. The most important result of his work was a series of black and white photographs called "Silesia".

The photographs from this series are held by Silesian Museum in Katowice, Silesian Library in Katowice, Museum of Upper Silesia in Bytom and also by Duisburg town hall in The Ruhr Area.

The author is a laureate of many photography competitions. On two occasions he won Grand Prix at Biennale of Polish Landscape in Kielce in 1979 and 1983. His series "Silesia" was exhibited in many galleries, e.g. in Katowice (1984), Warsaw (1986), Cracow (1986 and 2006), and also in Silesian Museum in Katowice (2002).

The second important black and white series created by Michal Cala is "Galicja" (landscapes of South East Poland). He was also the author of the exhibiton "Paysages de Pologne" shown in Galerie Contraste in Bordeaux in 1985.

As a result of his partnership with Galeria Zderzak in Cracow from 2004 to 2006 he published black and white album "Silesia".

In 2006 during Month of Photography in Cracow took places two exhibitions of his works: "Silesia 1978-1980" in Galeria Zderzak and "Silesian Districts" in the Union of Polish Art Photographers Gallery. In the same year the "Silesia" photographs were projected in the gallery Kronika in Bytom.

In 2007 Michal Cala was invited to take part in the exhibition presenting photographs of 100 most important Polish photographers in the XX century "Polish Photography in 20th Century" (Warszawa, Wilno).

In the same year he presented his series "Silesia" at 2. Foto Festival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg. He also won first place in Pilsner International Photo Awards 2007, category "Industrial". In the same year british Foto8 magazine and British Journal of Photography published articles about the author and his photographs.

In 2008, photographs from the "Silesia" series were exhibited in the gallery "Ikona" during Fotofestiwal in Łódź. They were also part of the project "Behind Wall" at the Noorderlicht Photofestival in the Netherlands.

In 2009, the photographs were projected during "009 Night of the Museums, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt. Global Views: 20 international photographers, chosen by Celina Lunsford".
Also in 2009, two exhibitions took place: one in Silesian Museum in Katowice titled "Michał Cała, Edward Poloczek, Silesian Inspirations of Landscape" and second in "Stara Galeria" of Union of Polish Art Photographers in Warsaw titled "Michał Cała, 30 Years of Photography in Silesia".

His photographs were published in albums "The Anthology of Polish Photography 1839-1989", "Masters of Polish Landscape" and "Polish Photography in 20th Century".

From 1983 he is a member of Union of Polish Art Photographers.

At the moment he lives in Bielsko-Biala and makes photographs for publishing purposes. He is the author of the following albums: "Silesia", "Beskidy", "Karkonosze", "Polish Mountains". Currently, after a few years break, he photographs Silesia again.