The Story Behind "Accidentally Wes Anderson"

We spoke to the creator of the popular Instagram account who has just launched a bestselling book for adventurers

Accidentally Wes Anderson was created for adventures and explorers. It is a book brimming with beautiful photos and intriguing narratives for curious beings. Each photo looks like a frame straight out of a Wes Anderson film. Yet these are not film sets. They are authentic spots that you can visit, all over the world, and each spot has its own unique and enchanting story.

At a time when we can’t do as much physical exploring as we would like to, the book not only encourages you to find joy in unexpected corners of the world, it also encourages you to examine your more immediate surroundings with fresh eyes. Look a little closer or at a particular time of day, and perhaps you’ll discover a Wes-like structure or scene in the part of the world you currently call home. One of the spots in the book is the Grand Opera House in Delaware that Wally used to visit on school trips. Another, much to my surprise, is the train station next to the castle ruins that my grandma has taken me to countless times in Dorset, UK–a short drive from her little flat.

The project began in 2017 when Wally and Amanda Koval launched the Instagram account @accidentallywesanderson. Today it has amassed a loyal community of over 1.2 million followers. Their new book features a carefully-curated selection of photographs captured by 180 photographers from 50 different countries, each of which is accompanied by stories that have been unearthed using every possible means of communication, except for “morse code and smoke signals,” says Wally.

With the arrival of the book (which even features a delightful foreword written by Wes Anderson himself), we spoke to author Wally Koval–a fan of Wes’s work and an avid traveler–to find out more about the process behind its creation.

The project began as a personal travel bucket list back in 2017. How has it evolved since then, and how did the opportunity to do the book come about?

It's evolved significantly with a capital “S”–the project, our process, how we engage with the community. This started as a travel bucket list for me and [my wife] Amanda. From there, we found ourselves reaching out to the community to decide where to go and what to do. The outpouring of interesting places and information was overwhelming. It was unbelievable. This was a resource that we wanted to share with the rest of the community. So we brought them “on this adventure with us”. It turned into what I started calling a little travel book club and expanded from there. We began receiving submissions from photographers within the community and discovering these incredibly meaningful and interesting stories that made these places much more than just pretty pictures.

Finally, two and a half years ago, we started thinking that this might be something beautiful to have in our hands, as opposed to just on our phone. We wanted to do these photos justice. Instagram was only doing so much, and we felt they deserved a lot more.

The Instagram account features over 1200 posts. What was the process of narrowing that selection down and choosing what to include in the book?

It was difficult. Amanda and I started with 15,000 photos. 15,000 submissions. We started whittling them down. There were photos that we knew from the very beginning that we wanted to include; many others, we didn't. We just evaluated each one. Many were beautiful photos, but the story just didn't stand up. Others unfortunately were not high-res enough. There were all these technical aspects to take into account. You can share any-size image on Instagram, but it has to be pretty large for it to look beautiful and hit the standard that we put out to the community in a physical form. There were a number of things that we had not considered that we would encounter along the way and have to address.

While each image is so unique, the selection as a whole is very coherent. Was there retouching involved to ensure all of the images worked well together?

There was very, very, very minimal retouching or anything like that. I want to see these places for what they are. It really takes a specific lighting or a specific time of day. That moment is another layer of what makes a photo AWA, right? The moment you are walking down the street and are taken aback by a building that maybe you had walked by a thousand times before but had never noticed it in a certain light.

What did you do before you started working on this project? Do you have a history of working in content creation?

I always worked in marketing and sales and events. I'm not a professional photographer. I'm not an architectural expert. I'm not a historian.

What is the day-to-day curatorial process like for the Instagram page?

We've posted once a day, every day, for more than 1200 days, no matter what's going on that day, whether it's our wedding day or you're sitting in the dentist’s chair. Amanda spearheads that process from the beginning. We receive 3500 or photo submissions via our website alone every month. We look through every single one. Amanda makes a first pass at what next week or the week thereafter will look like. And then I make her angry by picking and choosing a few others that I don't necessarily like. And then we compromise.

If you look at the Instagram account right now and just pull up however many photos you can see on your phone, they're all different colors. They're all different types of structures. They're all different countries. They're all different types of stories. Although it may just seem random, we put a lot of thought and a lot of effort into curating something that is worldwide and that touches on all different types of stories: architectural, historic, human interest, personal, small businesses. Stories of tiny things that happen each day in these locations but are very monumental in their own respect. We definitely take a lot of care in that as well.

How did you go about researching each place in order to tell each story in such detail?

We did a significant amount of research. Everything always starts with a Google search, right? That's the easiest way to begin. But we've recently been joking that the only communication methods we didn’t use in researching this book were morse code and smoke signals. I remember having a phone call with the great-great-grandchild of a person who was part of the story about Camp Shady Brook in Deckers, Colorado. We were on the phone and faxing back and forth with her––I had to track down a fax machine. I don't know when the last time I had seen a fax was. We found out that these homesteaders had gone up and laid claim to this land. So, we asked ourselves, “Who were the homesteaders?” After diving into obscure Facebook groups and messaging strangers, we happened upon the great great-granddaughter of one of the people who started this. Today it's a YMCA camp for children.

Wes Anderson wrote the book’s foreword. How did that come about?

We obviously had to get his thumbs up before we even started on the project for a lot of reasons. He was interested in us pursuing the project, but there was no indication that he was going to be part of it in any way other than giving us his blessing. So when we gave him the final copy, and he read through it, it was the most fantastic thing to hear that he would be open to penning a few words. Not only was that the perfect cherry on top, but it was also just a massive stamp of approval. When we got that forward, when he sent that email over, it was just, “Wow, this is real, this is happening.” Not only is he giving us his blessing, he's very happy with what we've created.

You describe the book as being for explorers and adventurers, yet it’s come out at a time where we are limited in where we can go. I love that you encourage people to look at their hometown in a new light. Was this message a reaction to the situation we find ourselves in now, or was it a message you always had felt to be an important part of the project?

A little bit of both. I love hearing when people have a connection to some of the places that we've featured, whether it's on the feed or in the book. I get a genuine smile because these are places that are new to me.

From the very beginning, Amanda and I had preached, “You can explore without needing to live in a certain place or go far from your home. You do not need to go far away to find an interesting story and an interesting place.” However, at the same time, we weren't necessarily even practicing what we preach because we were going far away. We went to Buenos Aires, Milan, Vienna, and Tokyo. When at the beginning of this year the world, you know, as we say, fell into a volcano, and everything kind of just stopped, we started practicing what we preach. We were supposed to have gone to Scotland, Spain, Paris, and Houston, Texas this year. Obviously, all of that went by the wayside, but we always try to find the silver lining. We traded our world map for our road atlas. We got in the car, and we went up to the Catskills in New York, about two hours away from New York city. We'd never really explored around there before and we found some incredible stuff. We went to our home state of Delaware. Even within a few blocks from your house, there are still beautiful buildings.

I think this experience has brought about this positive side. I do feel like it brings about a level of appreciation of travel and a level of appreciation of the places around us. We're excited that the book has come out at a time when we think that it could be appreciated the most and can hopefully bring some positivity in a time that's a little tough.

Accidentally Wes Anderson by Wally Koval, published in hardback by Trapeze, is available now. Click here to order a copy.

You may also like:

–7 Polaroids and Inspiring Quotes by Andrei Tarkovsky
–6 Filmmaking Techniques Pioneered by Alice Guy-Blaché
–Pioneers of Animation: Before Mickey Mouse