The mood of a dead town is best expressed by its loneliness. Bodie, a ghost town that died when gold mining ended in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, has almost vanished. Only ten per cent of its buildings are still standing. I isolated this one within a frame of sage and then waited for a car to pass by along the town’s dusty road. The thin white cloud of dust adds a melancholy touch, a sense of desolation that clings to this place like a pall.