South Korean Animal Cafes

In July 2022 Robin Schwartz traveled to Seoul, South Korea, one of the great centers of the world’s animal cafes. These cafes offer not only the usual domestic creatures but a whole panoply of exotic beasts: sheep, raccoons, meerkats, arctic foxes, turtles, and many more.

It’s no accident that animal cafes have flourished in some of the densest metropolises of Asia, where few have the space at home to raise pets or the occasion to encounter animals in the wild. The South Korean government estimated in 2019 that there were about 240 “wild animal cafes” across the country.

Owners of the cafes almost without fail say their customers come to “commune” with the animals, to connect on an emotional level. Couples on dates, families with gleeful children and people on their own while away hours at the cafes. Photographing people interacting with the critters, Robin Schwartz said she sensed in them kindred spirits even though she was visiting from halfway around the world. “Animal people are a tribe,” she said.

Schwartz originally proposed the idea for this photo essay for the 2022 Voyages Issue of The New York Times Magazine. The issue featured photographers who journeyed around the world in search of animal encounters.

Schwartz said, “I chose to visit the Seoul animal cafes to explore the desire that humans have to be with animals. I see now how they function as intense therapy for people. I saw couples cradling ferrets like babies. I saw children become less fearful of animals. I saw more than a few people petting an animal and crying.”

Artist Bios

Robin Schwartz

Robin Schwartz is a photographer driven to capture the connection and sameness of animals and humans. She is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow in photography with photographs in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, and others. The Aperture Foundation has published two books of Schwartz’s 20 years of photographing her daughter, Amelia, with animals. Her other books include Like Us: Primate Portraits and Dog Watching. She is a professor in photography at William Paterson University of New Jersey.

Organizations

Photoville

Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.

In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.

By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.

Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.

For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com