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)

A woman takes a selfie next to a model of Thor during the Middle East Film & Comic Con (MEFCC) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, April 11, 2015. (Photo by Kamran Jebreili/AP Photo)

Singer Rihanna prepares for a photoshoot with photographer Annie Leibovitz in Havana, Cuba, May 28, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

US actress Alexandra Daddario attends the “Baywatch” Photo Call in Berlin on May 30, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

Young Legong dancer portrait, Ubud, Bali on October 25, 2023. While the childrens' parents are out working, in pursuits including farming, fishing and clothes making, their offspring spend the long sunny days making their own fun, and as these pictures show not a minute is wasted. (Photo by David Lazar/Animal News Agency)

A man jokingly poses with a new installation of British graffiti artist Banksy's art in New York, October 20, 2013. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

A woman cools off from the extreme heat from an opened fire hydrant in Brooklyn, New York on July 2, 2018. The highest temperature reached 35 degrees Celsius in New York City on Monday as a result of a prolonged heat wave. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Russian Communist Party supporters take part in a memorial ceremony to mark the 96th anniversary of the death of Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, at Red Square in downtown Moscow on January 21, 2020. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)