The work of Wes Anderson is whimsical and unique. His characters are complex and flawed, yet their quirks and charm have won over audiences worldwide. It’s not hard for one to recognise a Wes Anderson film. They’re usually made up of vintage aesthetics, stunning yet intentional costume design and beautiful locations straight out of a storybook. One of Anderson’s greatest storytelling skills is how he uses his set and locations as characters in his films. He creates intricate worlds where his films' very settings and locations take on a world of their own. It’s not hard to get lost in the magical world of Wes Anderson.
Wally and Amanda Koval and their Mini Australian Shepherd dog named Dexter are one such family. What started as a travel bucket list of some of Wes Anderson’s most idiosyncratic film locations has evolved into Accidentally Wes Anderson, an incredible community of Anderson film lovers, photographers, travellers and people who love charismatic destinations.
We sat down with Wally and Amanda to discuss the origins of this wholesome community, its future, and Mr Anderson's thoughts on its existence.
What inspired you to start Accidentally Wes Anderson?
It started as a personal "travel bucket list" for Amanda and me. We travelled every chance we could, and I started seeing places online and in real life that looked like they were plucked from the screen of a Wes Anderson film. The best part, though, was that these places were real, and they each had a fascinating story about them. So I started documenting, researching, and sharing consistently, and thus a Community began to form around it.
Have you always been a fan of Wes Anderson? What is it about his films or aesthetic that you enjoy?
Yes, I’ve always been a fan of Wes Anderson since I saw Rushmore with my dad. The films are witty, smart, and sometimes simple on the surface but with many underlying complexities. And the set/art direction is always out of this world. It's like a song. You can dive into the lyrics if you'd like, but it's impossible not to tap your toes to the beat :)
What were you hoping to achieve with the platform when you started it?
My only goal was to have a list of interesting places that Amanda and I could dream of travelling to one day. Never ever did I ever imagine what it would become.
What do you look for when choosing an image for your platform?
There are a whole host of traits or characteristics you could look for in an image to categorise it as "AWA" - perhaps a level of symmetry or a touch of pastel - but much of the time, there is something about it you can't actually put your finger on and you just kind of … know it when you see it.
What has the response been like from people?
The response has been overwhelming and overwhelmingly positive. The AWA Community has rallied around this project and taken it to new heights far beyond what we could have ever made it into on our own. Additionally, seeing the reactions from people who are just coming across AWA for the first time - whether they are fans of Wes Anderson or had never heard of him before in their life, the reactions are almost always the same - it's like this delightfully disoriented look - a smile with a scrunched face and their head kind of tilted to the side. Many times they can't believe the places we are sharing are real. "Which Wes Anderson movie is this one from? … Oh, it's not from a movie? It's a real place?!" That is the best.
My hope is that we might be able to spark some interest in a location, perhaps prompt someone to visit a place, maybe get involved in preserving a location, or do their own digging and inspire an adventure of their own.
Were you expecting it to reach people from all over the world and grow to this size?
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we would be able to touch so many people. There are now 500,000 copies of our book in the world - 9 versions in 7 different languages and more on the way. We have been able to share photos captured by the AWA Community in prestigious art museums and long-standing exhibitions all over the world. We have been able to help lift up creators and provide them with a platform to share their work in ways they never imagined. It has been far more rewarding than we ever expected it to be.
What has the response been like to your books, and are there any new ones in the works?
Within the first week of hitting the shelves, our book 'Accidentally Wes Anderson 'hit the New York Times bestseller list. And the momentum has not yet slowed. We are beyond excited to have a new AWA Postcard Book that comes out on October 25 worldwide. It comprises 26 of our favourite photos from our first book transformed into removable, sendable, frameable high-quality postcards bound in a bite-sized book. We hope this will inspire the AWA Community and others to send a smile via snail mail instead of a text or email.
Do you know what Wes Anderson thinks of "Accidentally Wes Anderson"?
Wes actually wrote the foreword for our book. I think he explains it best in his own words :)
What does the future of Accidentally Wes Anderson look like?
Our biggest aims are to continue to provide a platform to lift up photographers & creators of all types, lean further into historic preservation to hopefully help save some of these amazing places we share the stories of, and hopefully continue to keep inspiring others to look at the world from a slightly different perspective. We have put a lot of effort into creating a pretty amazing (and 2x Webby Award Winning 😉) website and newsletter, and now we even have a pretty awesome daily quiz game. We are a super tiny team, but somehow we continue to be able to accomplish really big and really exciting things that seem to put smiles on a lot of people's faces. So we will continue to do that :)
How many of the places featured on your platform or in your book have you visited? Do you have a bucket list of the ones you would like to visit?
Amanda and I have been so fortunate to explore parts of the world we could not have imagined seeing if not for this project. From Japan and Korea to Oxford and Cambridge to Angoulême, France, where they filmed The French Dispatch, and many cities and states in the US. Still, we have not even scratched the surface of the thousands of locations featured on our Website. The bucket list continues to grow, and every week we re-arrange it thanks to the continually inspiring AWA Community, which submits thousands of photos through our website every single month.
Are there any upcoming projects/events/announcements for Accidentally Wes Anderson that you would like to mention?
The AWA Postcard Book is top of the list at the moment. To celebrate, we are planning pop-ups in London, a Road Trip from the oldest to the tiniest post office in the United States, a holiday shop in NYC, and holiday activations in Country Mart Post Offices on the West Coast of the US. We have a gallery that just went up in Macao, an exhibition in Kansas City, Missouri, and another in London. Our Korean exhibition just wrapped up, and we hope to bring it to Japan next year. So a bunch of fun stuff is in the works.
If anyone is a big fan of the project, I'd sincerely suggest checking out our AWA Bulletin (aka our "newsletter"). If you go to the Bulletin page, it starts with "We Hate Newsletters … so we made one we actually like, " which is a very true statement. 2x per month, we curate a short and sweet note to our Super Adventurers and tell them all the things we are up to…, and we put a fun giveaway in every dispatch. What's not to love?
