The HFR x LeBron 16 shoe is unveiled at the Harlem Fashion Row show and awards ceremony before the start of New York Fashion Week, Tuesday, September 4, 2018. (Photo by Diane Bondareff/AP Photo)

Libyan forces allied with the U.N.-backed government fire a shell at Islamic State fighters' positions in Sirte, Libya August 15, 2016. (Photo by Ismail Zitouny/Reuters)

Armed homeowners standing in front their house on Portland Place and confront protesters marching to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson's house in Missouri, U.S. on June 28, 2020. The protesters called for Krewson's resignation for releasing the names and addresses of residents who suggested defunding the police department. (Photo by Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post)

American professional wrestler and model Barbara Blank Coba, known professionally as Barbie Blank and by her ring name Kelly Kelly celebrated her 36th birthday on January 15, 2023. (Photo by @TheBarbieBlank/Twitter)

Jacob Yighe, right, attends the Met Gala Party for Jean Paul Gaultier x Shayne Oliver Group held at Sapphire in Manhattan on May 6, 2024. (Photo by Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post)

A priest is seen looking out of Abuna Yemata church’s only window. Priests cheerfully tell visitors that pregnant women, babies and old people attend Sunday services and no one has fallen off. (Photo by Ethiopia – The Living Churches of an Ancient Kingdom/The American University in Cairo Press/The Guardian)

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.

In this handout GOES satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Irene reaches hurricane strength as it moves across Puerto Rico towards Hispaniola August 22, 2011 in the Caribbean Sea. Irene, the first hurricane of the Atlantic storm season, brought torrential rains and winds to Puerto Rico, downing trees and powerlines and flooding streets. The expected path will bring Irene through the Bahamas and is likely to hit Florida and up the east coast of the U.S. (Photo by NOAA via Getty Images)