Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivers the keynote address at the 2011 Apple World Wide Developers Conference at the Moscone Center on June 6, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Apple CEO Steve Jobs returned from sick leave to introduce Apple's new iCloud storage system and the next versions of Apple's iOS and Mac OSX. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/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.

The winner of the Miss Tattoo Brazil 2014 contest, Bruna Barros, shows a tattoo that says 'My body, my rules' during Tattoo Week, the largest convention of art in the skin of Latin America, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 14 July 2017. A tattooed woman beauty pageant, the new trends and techniques of the tattoo world, body piercing and the environment of the art of definitively painting the body, are all due to be addressed during the seventh edition of the “Tattoo Week Sao Paulo“. (Photo by Sebastiao Moreira/EPA)

Armed homeowners standing in front their house on Portland Place and confront protesters marching to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson's house in Missouri, U.S. on June 28, 2020. The protesters called for Krewson's resignation for releasing the names and addresses of residents who suggested defunding the police department. (Photo by Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post)

A gilrl plays games in a shopping mall in Beijing, China, 24 November 2021. Demographers in China have called for more efficient implementation of supportive measures to encourage births to address the country's dwindling population growth as country's birthrate last year was 8.52 births per thousand people, the lowest level since 1978, according China Statistical Yearbook 2021. (Photo by Wu Hong/EPA/EFE)

Hospitality staff are reflected in a puddle of water as they prepare to pose for photograph in front of a giant basket decorated with replicas of flowers and fruits on display on Tiananmen Square during the opening ceremony of the 19th Party Congress in Beijing, Wednesday, October 18, 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged a reinvigorated Communist Party to take on a more forceful role in society and economic development to better address “grim” challenges facing the country as he opened a twice-a-decade national congress. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

A protester performs the symbolic death of a student demonstrator during a march near Congress where Chile's President Michelle Bachelet gives her annual address in Valparaiso, Chile, Thursday, May 21, 2015. Demonstrators are protesting the death of two students killed during an education reform march last week in Valparaiso and demanding more involvement in education reform. (Photo by Luis Hidalgo/AP Photo)