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)

Personal trainer, Denise Austin, and Katie Austin arrive at the ESPY Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Wednesday, July 13, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Photo)

It’s enough to make your head spin. The photographer Katherine Young set out to shoot spiral staircases in London, England to great effect, including this shot she calls the Downward Spiral Part III. (Photo by Katherine Young/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man takes a dip inside a chapel during celebrations of the Orthodox Christian feast of Epiphany in Saint Petersburg, Russia on January 19, 2020. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

Over 160 photographs, costumes, illustrations and magazine covers will be displayed at Los Angeles' Getty Center, until October 21. The display features a century of art from 1911 through to 2011. The exhibition is free – with no tickets required – and will be displayed in the lower level of the museum's West Pavilion. Here: An iconic image of a younger Kate Moss. (Photo by Glen Luchford)

Runners high-five children cheering from the sidewalk as they begin the half marathon during the Ottawa Race Weekend, which returned from a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa, Canada on Sunday, May 29, 2022. (Photo by Canadian Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Getting it done. Felicity, an athlete at an amateur weightlifting competition in a small local gym. (Photo by Clinton Bradbury/Women in Sport Photo Action Awards 2021)