“If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it”. – Herodotus. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”. – Plato. Photo: Mandalay, Burma. (Photo by Steve McCurry)

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)

Sabine Marcelis stands beside her project “RA” during The Edition III at Pyramids of Giza, in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt on October 26, 2023. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

In this composite image Actress Sophie Marceau has an embarrassing moment as her top falls down while she enters a screening of “Where the Truth Lies” at the Grand Theatre during the 58th International Cannes Film Festival May 13, 2005 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

MAKS (Russian: МАКС, Russian: Международный авиационно-космический салон, International Aviation and Space Salon) is The International Air Show took place near Moscow, Russia on Zhukovskiy LII air field on 16-21 August 2011.

A man runs after he tried to put himself on fire during a protest at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni on March 22, 2016. Greece will not be able to start sending refugees back to Turkey from March 20, 2016, the government said, as the country struggles to implement a key deal aimed at easing Europe's migrant crisis. The numbers are daunting: officials said as of Saturday there were 47,500 migrants in Greece, including 8,200 on the islands and 10,500 massed at the Idomeni camp on the Macedonian border. (Photo by Andrej Isakovic/AFP Photo)

The ferocity of crises worldwide is forcing a record number of people to flee their homes, seeking some form of safety within their own country or across international borders. There are 65.3 million displaced people worldwide, including 21.3 million refugees. Most have lost their homes to armed conflict or natural disasters but other factors, such as extreme poverty and climate change, also drive displacement. The International Organisation for Migration commissioned photojournalist Muse Mohammed to document the plight of the displaced. (Photo by Muse Mohammed/IOM)