Frankfurt Book Fair: 45 exclusive pictures of the biggest book fair
The Frankfurt Buchmesse or Book Fair was held from 9 to 13 October this year. Around 2,76,000 visitors attended. The Fair is the biggest book and media fair in the world – with around 7,300 exhibitors from around 100 countries.Vinutha Mallya explores the recently held Frankfurt Book Fair and unearths its genesis which dates back to the 15th century... Words and Photographs: Vinutha Mallya
The city of Frankfurt, known as Frankfurt am Main and located on the River Main in Germany, is one of the largest financial centres of Europe. Seen here is the city’s skyline which is dotted with several skyscrapers.
A view of the MesseTurm, or Trade Fair Tower from the fair grounds. The skyscraper has 63 floors, and it is 843 feet tall. The Frankfurt Messe is one of the largest trade fair grounds in the world. Along with the world’s largest book fair, it also hosts the Frankfurt Motor Show.
A view of the India Pavilion in Hall 8. The 40 participants of this collective stand included printers and publishers from India. The stand was organised by CAPEXIL’s Book Division, the trade support organisation affiliated to Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Government of India.
For a long time, Indian publishers and printers had been campaigning for space in Hall 8, which is otherwise occupied by participants from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, ie English-speaking countries. This was the second year that India was given space in Hall 8.
A view of the inner aisle of the India pavilion.
A cross-section of stands at the pavilion.Manipal Technologies’ stand is seen in the foreground. Manipal were the print partners to PrintWeek India's Book Special which was distributed at the Fair.
Kapil Raina and CJ Jassawla at the Thomson Press stand.
Replika Press’ stand in the India pavilion. The stall of one of the finest book factories was manned by the second generation of the Seth family.
Representatives of Chennai-based Sivasakthi Offset Printers and Smile Publishing, at their stand.
International Print-o-Pac also had a stand in the India pavilion.
The National Book Trust, India and Central SahityaAkademipresented a collective exhibition of books from India.
NBT and SahityaAkademi organized readings and symposiums which witnessed authors like ASethumadhavan, Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay, HS Shivaprakash, JeetThayil, Patel Kanajibhai Rayajibhai, PushpitaAwasthi and VikramVisaji.
Noted Kannada writer and current director of the Tagore Centre in Berlin, Prof HS Shivaprakash, speaking at the symposium entitled ‘My World, My Writings’.
Jeet Thayil, well-known poet and author of Narcopolis, narrating a poem at the symposium ‘My World, My Writings’.
A long shot of Hall 5.1, where Brazil, the Fair’s guest of honour country this year, had its presence.
More than 70 authors and 170 publishing houses represented Brazil at the Fair this year. Just like in India, Brazil’s book market is seeing a boom.
The Brazilian publishing industry had a turnover of BRL 4.98 billion (USD 2.30 billion) in 2012, during which time 435 million books were sold.
The audiobook collective stand at the Fair, displaying the current audiobook releases in Germany and rest of Europe.
A display of notebooks and art books.
An array of printed calendars.
A visitor browsing through the beautiful books displayed at the Korean Collective Stand.
A Turkish printer’s stand, proudly displaying the power of print.
Artists’ monographs at the stand of a prominent art-books publisher.
Unlike the book fairs in India, which are consumer fairs, the Frankfurt Book Fair is a trade fair, where publishers meet other publishers, business partners and service providers, for exploring partnerships and for trading in rights and licenses.
HarperCollins (US) led the deal-making at Frankfurt this year, and emerged as an aggressive buyer of rights to big books.
Little, Brown and Company’s I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, the autobiography of Malala Yousafzai, was published on 8 October in the US, a day before the Fair. 21 countries are bringing out the book, with Hachette publishing it in India.
Digital publishing tools have been changing the course of the book publishing industry in recent times. The Digital Innovation Hotspots at the Fair are meeting places for publishers and digital service providers.
After the run-away success of Fifty Shades of Grey, a self-published title which was the buzz at FBF in 2012, interest in self-publishing has increased manifold. Seen here is a very well-attended session on self-publishing, with presentations made by service providers and authors.
Frankfurt Book Fair is also a showcase for innovations of all kinds. Some innovative book formats by a cookbooks publisher, in the shape of vegetables and food items.
An innovative stand design seen in Hall 8.
The story of design illustrated on a display panel.
Each year, the Fair is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, which are the last two days of the five-day event.
Finland’s country stand. Finland will be the guest of honour at the Fair next year.
Indonesia’s country stand, proudly displaying their status of guest of honour in 2015.
The Frankfurt Antiquarian Book Fair is held in conjunction with the Frankfurt Book Fair each year. Some valuable treasures and collectors’ items are to be found here.
Old books displayed. The Antiquarian Fair gives a good glimpse into the development of printed books over the last few centuries.
A large-sized book with musical notations.
Spotted: A collection of photographic views of Benares (Varanasi) ghats, published in 1898.
According to the FBF Exhibitor Survey of 2012, nine out of ten participating companies are satisfied with their success at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Booksellers, Publishers and Librarians are the top three professions that attended the Fair in 2012.
This year’s was the 65th Frankfurt Book Fair.
The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, an hour by train from Frankfurt. It is one of the oldest museums of printing in the world. It was founded in 1900 to honour Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the moveable type.
A vault in the museum contains two original Gutenberg Bibles, laid side by side. Other important prints from Gutenberg’s workshop are also displayed here.
To help launch the museum, a number of publishers, manufacturers of printing machines and printing houses donated books, apparatus and machines. All these objects formed the initial collection.
An installation of over-sized moveable types, carved in wood, near the Gutenberg Museum.
