Cătălin Anastase is a Romanian-born artist whose lineage of painters and makers reaches back to 1660 in Transylvania and Dobruja. Raised on the adventures of Jules Verne and the mysteries of distant worlds, he grew up searching for meaning, the miraculous, and the hidden territories that lie beneath the surface of ordinary life. His photographic journey began in 1987, centred on black-and-white portraiture and light-painting — a technique he adapted to express the inner story of each subject. Influenced by chiaroscuro and by his background in acting and directing, Cătălin’s portraits explore the symbolic and the unseen, illuminating human presence through metaphor and light. After travelling and exhibiting across Europe and New Zealand, Cătălin arrived in Australia nearly two decades ago — a turning point that profoundly expanded his artistic language. The vast landscapes, ancient deserts, luminous shorelines, and nocturnal skies of Australia opened a new path in his work: light-painting landscapes and abstract forms inspired by the invisible forces of nature, the sacred, and the mysterious geometry of the world. Today, his practice weaves together portraiture, landscape, and abstraction, always guided by the same question: “What lies beneath the visible?” Through light and shadow, Cătălin invites the viewer into a space where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, where hidden stories emerge, and where the human search for meaning continues to unfold.