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.

An Indonesian student protester runs after he caught fire while throwing a molotov cocktail towards police during a protest against the new president's decision to hike fuel prices this week in Makassar, South Sulawesi Province November 19, 2014. (Photo by Yusuf Ahmad/Reuters)

A couple of monkeys look from inside their cage at a rescue and rehabilitation center in Santiago, Chile, Saturday, November 22, 2014. Elba Munoz who runs the center, says that one of the goals of the Center for the Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates is to stop the trafficking of the animals. (Photo by Luis Hidalgo/AP Photo)

Spectators cheer as the United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket, with NASA's Orion spacecraft mounted atop, lifts off from the Air Force Station, December 5, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Photo by Smiley N. Pool/AP Photo/Houston Chronicle)

In this Thursday, May 8, 2014 photo, guests look down from the Tilt!, a new tourist attraction that provides guests a unique view of the downtown area from the 94th floor of the John Hancock Building, after it was unveiled in Chicago. People hold onto handrails as the glass and steel facade tilts forward 30 degrees. (Photo by Ashlee Rezin/AP Photo/Sun-Times Media)

Beachgoers watch the detonation of a 500 pound British bomb on the beach on May 19, 2014 in Wassenaar, Netherlands. The bomb was dropped by the British allied forces during the second world war over nearby Leiden where it was found on a building site. (Photo by Michel Porro/Getty Images)

“Aurora Hunters”. Photographers taking part in a photography tour on the Lofoten Islands in Norway, pull over on the side of the road to take a photo of their first ever Aurora Borealis after spotting it from their tour bus. Photo location: Rystad, Lofoten Islands, Norway. (Photo and caption by Mark Gee/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Polar bear twins make their first public appearance with their mother “Freedom” at Ouwehands Zoo Rhenen, in Rhenen, The Netherlands, 19 February 2015. The twins, who were born in November 2014, have not been named because their gender has not yet been determined. (Photo by Bart Maat/EPA)