A five-week-old orphaned Southern Sea Otter pup rests on a rubber mat after arriving at the Shedd Aquarium's Abbott Oceanarium in Chicago, Illinois October 28, 2014 in this handout photo provided to Reuters on November 5, 2014. The stranded pup was found on September 30 on Coastways Beach in California and was rescued the next day to be brought back to health at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Southern sea otters were listed as “threatened” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1977. (Photo by Brenna Hernandez/Reuters/Shedd Aquarium)

American film star Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Mortenson or Norma Jean Baker). (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images). 1952

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.

Paramilitary policemen carry tyres as they take part in a training session in Zhangye, Gansu Province, China, March 1, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Italian actress Sophia Loren and US actor Marlon Brando at a cinema in Rome on November 11, 1954, where Brando received the Francesco Pasinetti Prize for his performance in the film “On The Waterfront”. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

A commuter holding his shoes rides on a tricyle through a flooded street, caused by a heavy downpour brought about by the southwest moonson, in Manila, Philippines on August 2, 2019. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP Photo)

China Airlines stewardess Wang Wen Hwang leaps from the burning China Airlines plane after assisting the passengers to safety February 27, 1980. Miss Wang saved most of the lives of the passengers despite her injuries. She was the last to leave the planes. (Photo by AP Photo)

Costumed characters participate in the 30th annual Dragon Con Parade in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 03 September 2016. Thousands of attendees crowd downtown Atlanta hotels and streets during the Labor Day weekend for the Dragon Con science fiction and fantasy convention, many dressed as their favorite characters. (Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA)