Kieron Connolly’s new book of photographs of more than 100 once-busy and often elegant buildings gives an idea of how the world might look if humankind disappeared. Here: Bodie, Mono County, California. Gold was discovered at Bodie in 1859 (just after the initial California gold rush) and it went from mining camp to boomtown. Its decline began in 1880, when word spread of new boomtowns elsewhere. The Standard Consolidated Mine closed in 1913, and four years later the Bodie Railway was abandoned. By 1940 the population was down to 40. Today, Bodie is maintained in a state of arrested decay as a visitor attraction. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photo)

In this May 14, 2016 photo, children wearing their school backpacks climb on a cliff using a bamboo ladder on their way home from school in Zhaojue county, southwest China's Sichuan province. A village in China's mountainous west where schoolchildren must climb an 800-meter (2,625-foot)-high bamboo ladder secured to a sheer cliff face may get a set of steel stairs to improve it's safety. (Photo by Chinatopix via AP Photo)

Long-tailed mayflies (Palingenia longicauda) mate on the surface of the Tisza river near Tiszakurt, Hungary, June 14, 2016. Millions of these short-lived mayflies engage in a frantic rush to mate and reproduce before they perish in just a few hours during “Tiszaviragzas” or Tisza blooming season from late spring to early summer every year. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

Przemek Pawlicki performs during training in Leszno, Poland on May 12, 2016. A stunning action-packed catalogue of photographs from sporting events around the world has been released by Red Bull. The energy drink giant's photographers have been busy capturing extraordinary images of action sports and some of the world's greatest daredevils. (Photo by Lukasz Nazdraczew/Red Bull/SWNS.com)

A dune buggy driver trains before competing in a sand dune drag racing event on January 8, 2016, as part of the Liwa 2016 Moreeb Dune Festival in the Liwa desert, some 250 kilometres southwest of Abu Dhabi. The festival, which attracts participants from around the Gulf region, includes a variety of races (cars, bikes, falcons, camels and horses) or other activities aimed at promoting the country's folklore. (Photo by Karim Sahib/AFP Photo)

A visitor celebrates after attending a bare hand fishing event in a frozen river during the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival at Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon province, South Korea, 09 January 2016. The festival runs under the theme “Unfrozen Hearts, Unforgettable Memories” from 09 January to 31 January 2016. (Photo by Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA)

In this January 4, 2016 photo, the weapon of a rebel fighter for the 36th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, hangs from a branch serving as a makeshift clothesline, near a rebel camp, in Antioquia state, in the northwest Andes of Colombia. “We’ll lay aside our weapons, like the accord says, but never hand them over”, says Juan Pablo, a commander of the 36th Front. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Anti-racist Loldiers of Odin clowns speak with police as they take to the streets against anti-immigration marchers in Tampere, Finland January 23, 2016. Police prevented the groups from confronting each other. On the northern fringes of Europe, Finland has little history of welcoming large numbers of refugees, unlike neighbouring Sweden. But as with other European countries, it is now struggling with a huge increase in asylum seekers and the authorities are wary of any anti-immigrant vigilantism. (Photo by Kalle Parkkinen/Reuters/Lehtikuva)