AFTER THE GOLD

Fine Art Photography by Edward F. Smith III

High in the wind-scarred Sierra Nevada’s, Bodie, California, still stands — a rare survivor of the American West’s most fevered dreams. Once a booming gold town of saloons, stagecoaches, and silver hopes, it burned bright and fast. The gold ran thin, the people left, and silence settled in.

Today, under California’s policy of arrested decay, Bodie remains exactly as it was abandoned — homes with dishes still on the shelves, storefronts staring into empty streets, and dust rising where footsteps once fell.

In After the Gold, Edward F. Smith III captures this haunting beauty through a deliberate dark motif — rich shadows, restrained light, and deep tonal contrasts that echo Bodie’s own truth. These are not sunlit postcards. They are visual elegies, crafted to honor the grit and loss, the dignity and decay that define the town’s enduring presence.

Each image invites you to look closer, to feel the echo of the people who came here chasing fortune, and to own a piece of that story in a fine art print destined to last for generations.

Step inside Bodie’s stillness — and see what remains when the gold is gone.