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 boy dressed as Hindu Lord Shiva poses before performing in a religious procession at the Mahashivratri festival in Allahabad, India, March 7, 2016. Hindus across the country celebrate Mahashivratri, better known as Lord Shiva's wedding anniversary. (Photo by Jitendra Prakash/Reuters)

In this Thursday, March 17, 2016 photo, 33-year-old Palestinian clown doctor Alaa Miqdad, left, entertains 3-year-old patient Yaqin Shawaf, who suffers from dialysis, in the department of kidney diseases at Al-Rantisi children's hospital in Gaza City. (Photo by Adel Hana/AP Photo)

A student uses a ruler to measure the distance between forks before a formal dinner at The International Butler Academy China on September 16, 2014 in Chengdu, China. Over the last several years, there has been a surge in demand among China's wealthy for Western-trained butlers, with many academies seeing large portions of their graduating classes hired by Chinese families or companies. (Photo by Taylor Weidman/Getty Images)

A man prays to mourn victims of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami in front of a ship brought ashore by the disaster in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. (Photo by Kyodo via Reuters)

Flames from the Jerusalem Fire erupt in Lake County, California August 12, 2015. The wildfire running rampant through drought-parched vegetation in northern California grew by several thousand acres overnight into Wednesday, as firefighters worked to stop the flames from spreading toward communities. (Photo by Robert Galbraith/Reuters)

Oscar winner Charlize Theron explodes into summer in “Atomic Blonde”, a breakneck action-thriller that follows MI6’s most lethal assassin through a ticking time bomb of a city simmering with revolution and double-crossing hives of traitors. (Photo by Jonathan Prime)

Boats moored in the middle of Dal lake are silhouetted against the setting sun on January 15, 2018 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, India. Kashmir, the Muslim majority state, known as the “Paradise on Earth” has for centuries captured the imagination of many writers, poets and film makers and is integral to the tourist trade. Kashmir has been a contested land between nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan since 1947, the year both the countries attained freedom from the British rule. (Photo by Yawar Nazir/Getty Images)