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)

Bikini Contest in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. (Photo by Evan Hurd/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

Catholic pilgrim Matilde Madalena de Jesus crawls on a rocky trail carrying a bottle of water on her head during the annual pilgrimage of the dead (Romaria dos Finados), in the city of Juazeiro do Norte, Ceara state, in Brazil October 31, 2016. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

Pakistan girls make selfies holding a Pakistan-made weapon displayed at the four-day International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2016 in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, November 23, 2016. (Photo by Shakil Adil/AP Photo)

American actress Alexandra Daddario goes skinny dipping on vacation in the last decade of December 2022. (Photo by alexandradaddario/Instagram)

The king penguin in his moulting suit joins his waddle on their way to the water despite not being waterproof yet at Volunteer Point on the Falkland Islands, 2023. (Photo by Judy Rogero/Media Drum Images)

Eden Zanker of the Demons kicks the ball during the 2020 AFLW Round 03 match between the St Kilda Saints and the Melbourne Demons at RSEA Park on February 21, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The sunken ferry Sewol sits on a semi-submersible ship during its salvage operations at the sea off Jindo, South Korea, in this handout picture provided by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and released by Yonhap on March 26, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Yonhap/The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries)