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)

“Harry Whittier Frees (1879–1953) was an American photographer who created novelty postcards and children's books based on his photographs of animals. He dressed the animals and posed them in human situations with props, often with captions; these can be seen as progenitors of modern lolcats”. – Wikipedia. Photo: “The nurse”. Photograph shows a puppy holding a kitten, 1914. (Photo by Harry Whittier Frees/Library of Congress)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).

A sculpture is pictured at “Dismaland”, a theme park-styled art installation by British artist Banksy, at Weston-Super-Mare in southwest England, Britain, August 20, 2015. The show is Bansky's first in the UK since the Banksy v Bristol Museum show in 2009 and will be open for 5 weeks at the Topicana site. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

Astrid Perez (L) and Ramon Camacho lay on the Playa during the Burning Man 2015 “Carnival of Mirrors” arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, September 6, 2015. Sunday marks the last day of the sold-out festival that gathered approximately 70,000 people from all over the world. (Photo by Jim Urquhart/Reuters)

The manager of Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory wears a mask of U S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as he poses and gives a thumbs-up as during a presentation of products to reporters at his factory's showroom in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China, May 25, 2016. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A model models shoes at the Chloe Gosselin Presentation during Fall 2016 New York Fashion Week at Lori Bookstein Fine Art on February 14, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)

People take pictures with their mobile phone of a scale model of a dinosaur displayed in front of La Sapienza University headquarters in Rome April 10, 2015. The realistic reproductions of dinosaurs are part of the “Dinosaurs in the flesh, science and art bring to life the rulers of a lost world” exhibition. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

An Indian Sikh Nihang, or warrior, performs Gatka martial arts skills during a procession at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on January 6, 2014, as part of birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh. The birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, is marked on January 6. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)