A tourist poses for a souvenir snap in front of autumn foliage in Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain on September 28, 2018. (Photo by Russell Cheyne/Reuters)

The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is seen over the sky near Inari in Lapland, Finland on February 14, 2019. (Photo by Alexander Kuznetsov/Reuters)

Sara Sampaio is seen wearing a pink knit sweater and a pink leather skirt during Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019 on September 24, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Timur Emek/Getty Images)

Students, dressed in a whole array of fancy dress outfits, were pictured on a wild night out to kick off Freshers' Week in Leeds, England on September 21, 2019. Freshers' Week is a period before the start of an academic year at a university or tertiary institutions. During this period, students participate in a wide range of social activities. (Photo by N B (PRESS) LTD)

A model presents a creation of designer Asifa Nabeel during Bridal Couture Week 2016 in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, November 27, 2016. (Photo by K.M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

In this Wednesday, July 20, 2016 photo, a child carries kettles through a flooded street with a woman in Tianjin, China. China says dozens of people have died or gone missing since Monday in massive floods across the country's north. (Photo by Chinatopix via AP Photo)

Competitors in costume cross a water obstacle during the Wildsau Dirt Run (Wild Boar Dirt Run) obstacle course fun race at Hellsklamm ravine in Obertriesting, Austria, October 22, 2016. (Photo by Heinz-Peter Bader/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.