How an Instagram account about Wes Anderson will change the way you see your city

“The entire thing is an accident.” That’s how Wally Koval describes the global phenomenon that kicked off when he started the Accidentally Wes Anderson (AWA) Instagram account in 2017.

It was originally intended as a personal “travel bucket list”: a collection of images from around the world reminiscent of the iconic filmmaker’s work. But the account now boasts more than 1.9 million followers, predominantly powered by a global community of travellers, photographers and film buffs contributing their own work. It’s also led to a New York Times bestselling book (with a sequel on the way), as well as a new exhibition that has recently hit Melbourne after runs in Seoul, Tokyo, London and Los Angeles.

A selection of Australian images from the new exhibition Accidentally Wes Anderson.Credit: Alex Huynh, Momina Kamran, Noah Stone, Clarice Cho, Marco Di Stefano, Craig Fotheringham

This local show also includes a dedicated Australian room featuring photos of various Anderson-esque locations on our shores – from the dollhouse arches of the State Library of Victoria to the ornate yet sterile control room of Australia’s first nuclear research reactor. Other locations featured include the Nullarbor Plain, tramsheds, Katoomba Falls’ Scenic Skyway and a “blush plum” NSW TrainLink carriage in Broken Hill.

Koval is far from the only one producing Wes Anderson-inspired content online. Last year, TikTokers got in on the trend, with characteristically twee and considered clips racking up billions of views on the platform. But he and his wife, Amanda, who work full-time curating AWA along with one other staff member, are very likely the only ones making a living from it – and doing so with the director’s blessing.

“We are insanely fortunate to be able to pay our rent – well, now our mortgage – this way,” he says from the couple’s new home in Delaware. “But without the community, this project does not exist.”

If you haven’t come across them before, AWA images are distinctive for their symmetry, bright colours and/or nostalgic eccentricities – all hallmarks of Anderson’s films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Moonrise Kingdom.

Think: Sydney’s repurposed White Bay Power Station. Or a white-gloved Tokyo railway attendant gesturing from the window of an aquamarine train.

Koval and his team sort through thousands of photos submitted to them for curation each month, and also commission a “chief adventure photographer” to scope out specific locations (often facilitated after brokering commercial partnerships with local tourism bodies). They’ve even made their way to Antarctica.

“We have taken the lens of Wes Anderson and turned that onto the real world,” Koval says. “The space that he [creates] is perfect and just so, but our world is very imperfect. These images allow you to see the beauty in it, in a way that’s unexpected.”

The photographs are also accompanied by a history or novel story of the place, catalogued with the same fastidious care you’d expect from one of Anderson’s neurotic characters.

“Every single one of those locations has an interesting, unexpected and sometimes unbelievable story behind it,” Koval says. “That additional layer of what’s behind the facade I think is what makes it all the more fascinating.”

10 Australian sites featured in Accidentally Wes Anderson

• Vaucluse Yacht Club, NSW 
• Narooma Kinema, NSW 
• The Hydro Majestic Hotel, NSW 
• Hotel Eastlink, VIC 
• Palais Theatre, VIC 
• Beaufort Fire Station, VIC 
• Cape Bruny Lighthouse, TAS 
• Mermaid Beach Tower, QLD
• Busselton Jetty, WA 

That’s certainly what makes the book so compelling – a work that could be published only with the director’s final approval and that features a foreword from the man himself. “I was afraid of a cease and desist letter,” Koval says. “Luckily for us, [Anderson] is very gracious and kind and understood where we were coming from.” But does it work as an exhibition?

Accidentally Wes Anderson: a social media trend turned global phenomenon.

There’s an uneasy tension between the new and the old as you walk around the themed rooms of AWA: The Exhibition (from “Doors” to “Sports” and “Maritime”).

The images themselves are carefully curated and interpret Anderson’s visual language so well. They’re also accompanied beautifully by a collection of unused music written by Mark Mothersbaugh for Anderson’s films playing throughout the space. But it’s a strange experience to celebrate the charm of Anderson’s analogue, retro-obsessed cinematic universe via photos that were often shot on iPhones with captions/stories you frequently have to scan a QR code to read. And stranger still, with much of Melbourne’s impressive architecture on display in the imagery, to stage the show in an unremarkable commercial space wedged inconspicuously above a bank in the CBD.

But while those seeking true fidelity to Wes’ world can always seek comfort in his films, the show is absolutely a success in celebrating the spirit of discovery and creativity they continue to inspire. And for Koval, that’s always been the point.

“If you can put a smile on people’s face or just inspire them to look at their block in a different way, you’ve elevated someone’s day.”

Accidentally Wes Anderson: The Exhibition is on now at 360 Bourke Street, Melbourne.

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