Fifth Harmony accept the most buzzworthy international artist or group award during the iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards (MMVAs) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 19, 2016. (Photo by Fred Thornhill/Reuters)

Actor Cornelius Obonya as Jedermann and actress Brigitte Hobmeier as Buhlschaft perform on stage during a dress rehearsal of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's drama “Jedermann” (Everyman) at Domplatz square in Salzburg, Austria, July 16, 2015. The play is directed by Julian Crouch and Brian Mertes and will premiere as part of the annual Salzburg cultural Festival on July 19, 2015. (Photo by Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

A Brazil fan waits for the start of the group A World Cup soccer match between Brazil and Croatia, the opening game of the tournament, in the Itaquerao Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, June 12, 2014. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

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.

A staff member at the Rising Sun Anger Release Bar suits up in protective gear August 8, 2006 in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

This picture taken on June 1, 2019 shows Alex Gao trying to balance a book on his head during an etiquette and manners class in central Shanghai. Against a soundtrack of classical music, children learn social skills, dining manners and deportment in the class, which costs $390 for four hours of practical instruction per student. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

It’s time to start watching for Comet PANSTARRS, one of two comets to get excited about in 2013. Photo: This image provided by NASA shoaws the comet PANSTARRS as seen from Mount Dale, Western Australia on March 5, 2013. According to NASA on March 10, it will make its closest approach to the sun about 28 million miles (45 million kilometers) away. As it continues its nightly trek across the sky, the comet may get lost in the sun's glare but should return and be visible to the naked eye by March 12. (Photo by AP Photo/NASA)

A participant holds balloons before the Annual March against Homophobia and Transphobia in Havana, May 14, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)