Inmates are seen at the transgender gallery in La Joya prison on the outskirts of Panama City, Panama February 3, 2016. Inmates of La Joya prison on the outskirts of Panama City are housed in makeshift cells amid heavy overcrowding, living in grimy conditions and with limited medical attention. Many prisoners in the Central American nation languish for years without being sentenced. (Photo by Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

A climber walks on the ridge beneath the eastern peak of the Gamsberg (2385 meters above sea level) near Grabs, Switzerland, Friday, October 3, 2014. (Photo by Gian Ehrenzeller/AP Photo/Keystone)

A police officer walks along a street of the burning village of Smolenka near Chita on Monday, April 13, 2015. Russian authorities say out-of-control agricultural fires have killed at least 15 people, injured hundreds more and destroyed or damaged more than 1,000 homes in Siberia. The fires were started by farmers burning the grass in their fields, but spread quickly because of strong winds. (Photo by Evgeny Yepanchintsev/AP Photo)

Durga Kami, 68, who is studying tenth grade at Shree Kala Bhairab Higher Secondary School, walks with his classmate Sagar Thapa, 14, as they head to school in Syangja, Nepal, June 5, 2016. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

The eruption of Cordon Caulle began on June 4, 2011, located in the Region of Los Rios in Chile. For about 12 months, people and animals became accustomed to living with the daily fall of ash, which also caused problems in the air traffic in South America. The explosions and lightning during first days of the eruption could be seen from hundreds of miles around. This photograph was taken on the second night of eruption from the town of Lago Ranco. (Photo and caption by Francisco Negroni/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

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“Unexpected x2 (a.k.a. “how much is that doggie in the window”)”. Taiwan, 2011. (Photo and caption by Asian (Street) Impressions)

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.

Vivid colors and bizarre shapes come together in a false-color image that could be an illustration for a fantasy story. This labyrinth of exotic features winds its way along the edge of Russia’s Chaunskaya Bay in northeastern Siberia, seen as a vivid blue half-circle at the bottom of the image Two major rivers, the Chaun and Palyavaam, flow into the bay, which in turn opens into the Arctic Ocean. Ribbon lakes and bogs are present throughout the area, created by depressions left by receding glaciers. (Photo by USGS/NASA)