Hardy Dutch swimmers brave the icy North Sea on January 1, 2012 in Scheveningen, Netherlands. A record number of 10,000 people took the plunge in this year's traditional New Year's dip. The high turnout was attributed to the mild weather with a sea temperature of 8 degrees compared to 4 degrees last year. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

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 picture released by the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows Kim Jong-un convening an urgent operation meeting at 0:30 am on March 29, 2013 at an undisclosed location, in which he ordered strategic rocket forces to be on standby to strike US and South Korean targets at any time. (Photo by KCNA via EPA)

North Korean soldiers look at South Korea across the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), on December 22, 2011 in Panmunjom, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment place American flags at the graves of U.S. soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery in preparation for Memorial Day May 26, 2011 in Arlington, Virginia. “Flags-In” has become an annual event since the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) was appointed an Army official ceremonial unit in 1948. Every available soldier in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment participates in these annual ceremonies. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Face Off is an American reality television game show on the Syfy cable network in which a group of prosthetic makeup artists compete against each other to create prostheses such as those found in science fiction and horror films.

In this Friday, March 28, 2014 photo, singers of the Moranbong Band, Jong Su Hyang, foreground, and Pak Mi Kyong, left perform on their stage in Pyongyang, North Korea. Step aside, Sea of Blood Opera. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's favorite guitar-slinging, miniskirt-sporting girl group, the Moranbong Band, is back. And these ladies know how to shimmy. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)

Statuettes in various forms of the lost-wax casting process are seen, including the wax figure, wax mold, shell mold, and patina coated statute of “The Actor” during a media event on the production of the statuettes for the 21th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards at American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank, California January 13, 2015. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters)