TV personality Kylie Jenner attends the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on August 24, 2014 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)

Nikita Dragun attends the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on August 26, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

A guest poses against a video installation displayed at the Moncler catwalk show during Milan Fashion Week Spring 2019 in Milan, Italy, September 19, 2018. (Photo by Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

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.

Anne Leanzo, of Virginia, plays Ash from the Evil Dead movie and her daughter Gina, 15, plays Lilith from the Borderlands video game during Comic-Con 2017 in San Diego, California, July 22, 2017. (Photo by Bill Wechter/AFP Photo)

Miniature food cook Burcu Celenoglu Aydin prepares a dish at her mini kitchen in Istanbul, Turkey April 7, 2018. Social marketing coordinator Burcu Celenoglu Aydin and her husband videographer Anil Aydin cook renowned dishes of Turkish cuisine in tiny measures and upload the videos on social media. (Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters)

American actress Bella Thorne claims she’s earned a staggering $2million during her first week as a creator on paid subscription service OnlyFans. The 22-year-old actress announced she’d joined the platform earlier this August 2020 with a sеxy, bikini-filled video. (Photo by Instagram/The Sun)

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.