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.

Wedges of an orange generate enough current and electrical juice – 3.5 volts – to power an LED. The fruit’s citric acid helps electrons flow from galvanized nails to copper wire in this 14-hour exposure. This image was published in September’s Visions of Earth, a trio of photos that appear in each issue of National Geographic. (Photo by Caleb Charland/National Geographic)

An Indian Sikh Nihang, or warrior, performs Gatka martial arts skills during a procession at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on January 6, 2014, as part of birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh. The birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, is marked on January 6. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

“The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon, center, exits the water during the Chicago Polar Plunge, Sunday, March 2, 2014, in Chicago. Fallon joined Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the event. (Photo by Andrew A. Nelles/AP Photo)

A member of a feminist group performs during a rally to celebrate International Women's Day in Santiago, Chile, March 8, 2021. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

A woman refreshes at a fountain in Casa de Campo during a heatwave in Madrid, Spain on June 15, 2022. (Photo by Isabel Infantes/Reuters)

Jamaican musical artist Shenseea attends the 2022 MTV VMAs at Prudential Center on August 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Catherine Powell/Getty Images for MTV/Paramount Global)

People light 25,000 memorial candles on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, 29 October 2020. Rabin was fatally shot by a far-right Jewish law student, who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords, after attending a peace rally held in Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square (now Rabin Square) on 04 November 1995. (Photo by Abir Sultan/EPA/EFE)