A sandstorm hits the city of Zhangye in Gansu province, China on November 27, 2018. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

A model poses with a motorcycle and a car on a racing track at the Essen Motor Show in Essen, Germany, November 27, 2015. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/Reuters)

Lara Stone at Mark's Club on October 27, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Mark Milan/GC Images)

A stag deer stands in the road in Richmond Park, in west London, Britain, December 27, 2017. (Photo by Hannah McKay/Reuters)

Cosplayers attend Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Reuters)

A model gets ready backstage during the Tbilisi Fashion Week in Tbilisi, Georgia, on October 27, 2017. The presentation of the Spring/Summer 2018 collections runs from 27 to 30 October. (Photo by David Mdzinarishvili/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.

A picture shows the full moon during a “blood moon” eclipse over the temple of Apollo in Corinth on July 27, 2018. The longest “blood moon” eclipse this century began on July 27, coinciding with Mars' closest approach in 15 years to treat skygazers across the globe to a thrilling celestial spectacle. (Photo by Valerie Gache/AFP Photo)