A man walks near a boat which has capsized due to strong winds in Istanbul on November 30, 2021. Strong winds continue to blow across Istanbul where the Bosphorus strait is temporarily closed to boat traffic. Four people were killed and dozens injured on Monday in Istanbul, which was hit by high winds. (Photo by Yasin Akgul/AFP Photo)

Villagers riding a rickshaw maneuver along an overflowing dam at the border between Cavite province and Las Pinas city, in Las Pinas, Philippines, 25 October 2020. According to Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Typhoon Molave will make landfall in the evening of 25 October in southern Luzon island. An alert was issued to residents for possible floods and landslides. (Photo by Francis R Malasig/EPA/EFE)

A woman who was injured after being trampled is helped away, after residents desperate for a planned distribution of food for those suffering under Kenya's coronavirus-related movement restrictions pushed through a gate and created a stampede, causing police to fire tear gas and leaving several injured, at a district office in the Kibera slum, or informal settlement, of Nairobi, Friday, April 10, 2020. (Photo by Brian Inganga/AP Photo)

An Indian priest covers his face with a mask as a precaution against coronavirus and prays at a temple, in Prayagraj, India, Monday, June 8, 2020. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

People dressed as Adam and Barbara Maitland from “Beetlejuice” ride the subway after leaving New York Comic Con 2022 on October 08, 2022 in New York City. The four-day event, which began Thursday morning at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, is expected to attract over 200,000 comic, fantasy and pop culture fans from across the country and world. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

American singer-songwriter Madonna performs during opening night of The Celebration Tour at The O2 Arena on October 14, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Bebe Rexha performs on stage at the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 6, 2016. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)