Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures

Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures is the second book from the Webby Award-winning namesake team, Accidentally Wes Anderson.

Like the first edition, this book contains a collection of photography created and selected for its embodiment of the filmmaker’s cinematography. Both editions feature captivating images that “may seem fantastical or out of this world, but… all real” (Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures, page 2).

Yet, I think this second book is a little better than the first (I explain why here and here).

As for the rest of the review, I’ll be conveying as many details as possible about this hardback and its purpose without spoiling the experience of ownership. AWA books are a little different from others on my “photography” shelf, so I’ll start by decoding a few things about the cultural phenomenon that is Wes Anderson.

In this book review: Wes Anderson, an adjective? A travel guide? A book about humans. The AWA community. A book for (not just) photographers. Book layout and design. Paper, binding, and print. Where to buy this book. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

✪ Note: Team AWA sent me this book for review free of charge at my request. I never reserve critical observations about products, regardless of how I got them, because your trust and readership are more important.

Wes Anderson, an adjective?

Wes Anderson’s visual style is one of the most recognizable and celebrated in modern cinema. It often features pastel or saturated colours, planimetric staging, grandiose yet dollhouse-looking architecture, and mid-century design features.

How often can one find such things in the modern world? Apparently, enough to fill 340+ uncoated pages a second time. One hundred and sixty-two individual contributors had their work published in Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures. The submissions came from every continent, including Antarctica.

A travel guide?

Celebrating the cinematographer’s otherwordly style as it accidentally manifests within a world that looks and feels different from the perfectly styled screenplays is an adventure in itself. The book’s authors, Wally and Amanda Koval, whose immense following gave birth to this project, interpret those visual journeys to find the Wes Anderson settings almost literary.

The book’s promotional material and some of its content directly refer to travel or visiting the places it features on its pages. So, yes, Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures can be read as a travel guide. The words that caption each photograph will often give a historical context and an approximate geographical location — as you’d expect from one.

Still, I don’t think it’s literally a travel guide. The book does not spend any ink telling exactly how to get to any given location. In fact, almost immediately (on page two), it asks the reader to pause before proceeding with exploration: “please explore responsibly and respectfully… Call, email, or send a carrier pigeon to confirm details before you make travel plans.”

To me, Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures read like a figurative travel guide. Meant to take me around the world in a few afternoons under a lamp next to a coffee table with the daily tours to the whimsical, otherworldly locations speedily narrated.

A book about humans.

If you liked the first book, you’ll love the Adventures. The photos are, of course, good — it’s always great to see more. But the most important improvement is in the text next to the images.

Whereas the earlier book’s captions sometimes resembled Wikipedia entries, the Adventures reads like a much more refined collection of human stories. The new book sets the mood in the introduction, “But no matter where, when, or why, adventure is nothing without the people who make it memorable. Here we share the stories of communities and characters — on every continent — who come to life as vividly as the photos themselves.”

I was very pleased to find that the new edition had greater attention dedicated to the written parts. That made the photographs feel more meaningful, which is a step up from the aesthetic appeal of the first book. Yet, one way I think the Adventures could be improved (perhaps in the next edition) is by becoming a better guide for itself. For example, certain locations, like Vermont, Seoul, and Cambridge, have a lot more written about them, with each page stylistically framed — great, but why? The website describes them as three of the ten “super special stories,” which still does not clarify why those places were chosen.

So I asked Wally Koval, AWA founder, about those stories. Here’s his response:

In other words, the ten highlighted long-form stories are the editorial content, whereas the rest of the book is comprised of community submissions.

The AWA community.

The Accidentally Wes Anderson book series was inspired by the Reddit group and ushered into existence via Wally and Alyssa Koval’s efforts on their Instagram account. But it’s not just them who made the project possible: 161 of 162 contributors whose images made it onto the Adventures pages are people who casually uploaded submissions (which are still accepted for future online and, presumably, print features). The first book had over 180!

AWA fans socialize and participate online and offline. The team has held numerous exhibitions and is already on tour, with the first date being held in NYC today (October 23rd) and more planned across the USA for the remainder of the year. The above link also has a request form where you can suggest any tour location for 2025.

A book for (not just) photographers.

I used the first edition AWA to study the Wes Anderson style of photography, which is a significant part of my course on creating photographs that feel like they were drawn with pastels. The Adventures brought a fresh set of images that will undoubtedly influence future updates to that guide. But that may take a minute as I’m spending more time with the new book thanks to the stories that make it so captivating.

You don’t need to be a photographer to appreciate the design or the aesthetics in print. I don’t think you even have to have seen any of Wes Anderson’s movies to recognize and celebrate their influence. Whatever your background may be, I think you’ll simply enjoy exploring the 200 locations around the world through a colourful, whimsical lens and the stories that make them relatable.

Book layout and design.

Like the first edition, the Adventures features a classic layout with a sans-serif type in two columns next to photos across a half-page, full-page, or spread. Featured stories (the ones authored by the AWA team) are printed on lightly tinted pages with decorative borders. The introduction and foreword by Wes Anderson are printed in a monospace serif font (something like Courier New).

The Adventures is slightly easier to read than the original book, thanks to a somewhat thicker typeface and a bit more kerning. However, the font is still fairly small, presumably to offer more space for the photographs.

I like the endsheets, which feature yellow, tiled icons resembling cameras, hats, and binoculars on a light-orange background.

Paper, binding, and print.

Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures is a sewn hardcover-bound, full-colour book with a paper jacket. It runs across 368 uncoated pages ~40gsm. It feels solid and easy to flip through. Middle pages remain flat even when the book is new (although some spreads require a little pulling on the sides).

A deluxe edition of this book is also available. It’s hand-signed and stamped, bound with vegan leather. The fancy package comes in a slip-case with a sheet of stickers, a print, two postcards, and extra entries into the Antarctica giveaway contest.

Where to buy this book.

Accidentally Wes Anderson is available in numerous bookstores around the world. I encourage you to support your local small business. You can also support this website right now by making your purchase using this link. Thanks!