Carola Plöchinger

"Early Migration" deals with migration in a historical context. Starting from the investigation of definitions, meanings and circumstances of home and migration, the focus lies on documenting the traces of earlier migration movements in order to put the perceived actuality of the topic into a broader context. Numerous causes impel migrants to move to other countries. Often searching for better living conditions, migration is a global phenomenon that has occurred throughout human history.

My series of the first chinese settlements in Arrowtown (New Zealand) dating from the gold mining days (from the 1860s onwards), were the initial spark for me to deal with the historic part of the subject photographically – ironically, the work on the project was interrupted by the pandemic, but is intended as a long-term project.