Central Palo Seco power station of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is seen behind a cemetery, in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 22, 2018. (Photo by Alvin Baez/Reuters)

A police officer lies on the street after being run over by a bus during a protest against the increase in the price of public transport in San Cristobal, Venezuela March 29, 2016. (Photo by Carlos Eduardo Ramirez/Reuters)

People look at huge waves crashing on the San Esteban de Pravia seafront, northern Spanish region of Asturias February 8, 2016. (Photo by Eloy Alonso/Reuters)

A girl marches alongside Salvadoran soldiers during the parade commemorating Independence Day in San Salvador, El Salvador September 15, 2016. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

A French bulldog named Rocket takes part in the annual Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon in Del Mar, California, on Sunday, September 7, 2025. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune/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 freediver uses weights, yoga and camera tricks to create the illusion of walking underwater for a film which took three years to shoot and was completed in 2013 in El Hierro, Canary Islands. Like a scene from a Hollywood science-fiction movie, this trick footage shows a man apparently walking on water. The underwater film was shot by biologist Armiche Ramos and brothers Armando and Francisco del Rosario, who used their expertise in freediving to create the illusion. No computer graphics were involved in the production, with the team relying solely on their own skills – and a few hidden secrets. (Photo by Ocean Brothers/Barcroft Media/ABACAPress)

Spanish runner Francisco Contreras, 77, known as “Super Paco”, runs as he participates in the XVIII 101km international competition in the outskirts of Ronda, southern Spain, May 9, 2015. About 7,000 participants, including runners, mountain bikers and duathletes, run a track of 101 km (63 miles) in less than 24 hours through the “Serrania de Ronda” (Ronda Mountain Range) during this competition organised by the 4th Tercio (Regiment) “Alejandro Farnesio” of the Spanish Legion. The Puente Nuevo is 120 metres (394 feet) high over the gorge of the river that divides the city of Ronda. Picture taken using long exposure. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)