Sports have the ability to transform groups of strangers into a united community. In the celebratory spirit surrounding the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Sony and the World Photography Organisation present UNITED – a contest honouring the passion of football fans around the world. Seven inspirational photographers have been selected by Sony and WPO to capture the atmosphere and celebration of the World Cup across the globe. Photo: France – French fans cheering for their team. (Photo by Anthony Lepinay)

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.

Women wearing Dirndl, a traditional Alpine folk dress, run to get a place in a tent for the opening of the 185th Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, Germany, 22 September 2018. The Oktoberfest lasts until October 7 and is the world's largest beer festival. The beer festival typically draws over six million visitors. (Photo by Karl- Josef Hildenbrand/DPA/Alamy Live News)

A float depicts British Prime Minister Theresa May looking at her Brexit-baby during the traditional Rose Monday parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, Shrove Monday, February 12, 2018. (Photo by Martin Meissner/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.

“Aquarium or Akvarium (Russian: Аквариум) is a Russian rock group, formed in Leningrad in 1972 by Boris Grebenshchikov (Борис Гребенщиков), then a student of Applied Mathematics at Leningrad State University, and Anatoly (George) Gunitsky, then a playwright and absurdist poet”. – Wikipedia

Flashmob: Water Battle on All-Russian Exhibition Center in Moscow, Russia, on August 5, 2012. (Photo by Lilja Dal)

(Excuse me for the clumsy electronic translator) Today in Moscow presidential elections are spent. Abundantly clear that without dependence from their results the winner will be declared Vladimir Putin. It can lead to the mass protest. Therefore the authorities have deduced on streets of thousand soldiers and policemen. For example, personally I (Avax) see from the window: four buses and two trucks with RIOT police. In photos more low – Moscow on March 04, 2012. A Garden Ring, The Tverskaya street, The Mayoralty, The State Duma, and The Bolshoi theater. (Photos by: Vladimir Maltsev; Source: LiveJournal; Rustem Adagamov; Source: LiveJournal).