A hot air balloon floats over farm fields south of Washington, Ill., as the sun slips behind clouds on the autumn afternoon of Wednesday, September 24, 2014. (Photo by Ron Johnson/AP Photo/Peoria Journal Star)

A person viewing the Northern lights over the lava landscape, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland. (Photo by Arctic-Images/Getty Images)

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)

Stiliana Nikolova of Bulgaria performs her ball exercise in the final of the individual competition of the 40th European Rhytmic Gymanstics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, 25 May 2024. (Photo by Tibor Illyes/EPA)

Puerto Rico's Ayden Owens-Delerme competes in the men's decathlon shot put of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 2, 2024. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

A visitor takes a picture of the painting “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972” by British painter David Hockney during a press visit ahead of the opening of the exhibition “David Hockney 25” at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, France, on April 8, 2025. (Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

Entitled Feasting at Sunset, this photo of a Brandt’s cormorant among pilchards was the winner of the Birds in the Environment category in the 2025 Bird Photographer of the Year competition. (Photo by Franco Banfi/The Guardian)

Highland dancers compete at Inveraray Highland Games on July 19, 2022 in Inveraray, Scotland. The games are held in the grounds of Inveraray Castle celebrate Scottish culture and heritage with field and track events, piping, highland dancing competitions and heavy events including the world championships for tossing the caber. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)