Films and images have always had the special power to convey a fairytale, a blissful idea of something just slightly out of reach. Having given viewers treasured and timeless movies such as Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson holds a special place in many people’s hearts. But something so unique about Anderson’s talent as a filmmaker is his creation of a synthesized, orderly, colorful world that seems to exist only in his films yet sometimes surprisingly reveals itself to us as a reality.

Pastel pinks, blues and oranges, dreamy skies, perfectly symmetrical architecture and unique and atypical locations work together to create Anderson’s unique style. His films and style have created their own genre within the film world that over the years has amassed a cult-like following. This following is a community who share a bond over his unique imagery. Over time, many of his viewers and fans have begun to view places through an Anderson lens, seeking real places, buildings and landscapes from all over the world that appear to be out of one of his film’s.

In the spirit of this community, Brooklyn-based husband and wife team, Wally and Amanda Koval, created an Instagram page known as Accidentally Wes Anderson, or AWA for short, back in 2017. They page started as a place dedicated to these special “straight out of a Wes Anderson movie” locations. This was an online space where fans of Anderson could share their personal documentation of the Anderson-esque locations scattered around the world. The Instagram account quickly became a way to provide inspiration for travelers and creatives around the world.

Fast forward a few years and over a million followers later, Wally Koval turned this blooming group into Accidentally Wes Anderson, a beautiful coffee table book filled to the brim with hundreds of images documenting surreal Anderson-esque locations around the world. On each page there are submissions from photographers and fans all around the world with stories about their travels and the images they captured. Descriptions and explanations allow readers to dive deeper into the alluring world pictured on the pages of the book.

The book not only pays tribute to both Anderson’s work and the stunning locations around the world that resemble it but also gives fans and readers the opportunity to hear from Anderson himself, as he actually wrote the foreword for the book. He thanks his fans and the contributors to the book for their devotion to his style and for putting together places he plans to travel to throughout his lifetime.

The beauty of Accidentally Wes Anderson lies in the creation of a community brought together through their shared love of travel, film, and finding the great idiosyncratic corners of the world. The images inspire us all and celebrate the novelty of travel. In a year when remembering such things became difficult, this book brought it’s creative idea and inspiring photographs to life while honoring one of the most influential filmmakers of our time.

You can order a copy of Accidentally Wes Anderson by Wally Koval here.