Sepak Takraw – ISTAF Super Series Korea 2014-15 – Gunsan City, South Korea April 26, 2015: Thailand's Fueangfa (L) in action during the final. (Photo by Jeremy Lee/Reuters)

A boy looks inside the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex replica at the Egidio Feruglio Museum in Trelew, Argentina, in this May 18, 2014 file photograph. Scientists on July 28, 2015 unveiled a comprehensive analysis of the teeth of the group of carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods, which include the Tyrannosaurus Rex, detailing a unique serrated structure that let them chomp efficiently through the flesh and bones of large prey. (Photo by Maxi Jonas/Reuters)

A hot air balloon in the likeness of Yoda from Star Wars prepares for liftoff at the 21st Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival at the former Clark US Air Force base in Pampanga Province, Philippines on February 9, 2017. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Colonel Roscoe Turner, the pilot of an American Boeing plane, showing his wife a model of the plane, at the airfield in Mildenhall. (Photo by R. Wesley/Fox Photos/Getty Images). 19th October 1934

A silicon rug in the form of Adolph Hitler on display during an exhibition by Israeli artist Boaz Arad, at the Center for Contemporary Art February 22, 2007 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Arad is an Israeli artist who is dealing with the Holocaust in a provocative way. He uses the Holocaust to discuss human evil and contemporary Israel, which he says is torn and crumbling. (Photo by David Silverman/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.

Elementary school children play outside their classrooms as mount Sinabung volcano spews thick volcanic ash in the background on February 10, 2017 in Karo, Indonesia. Mount Sinabung is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia and last erupted in May 2016, killing seven people. (Photo by Albert Damanik/Barcroft Images)

A person dressed as an astronaut walks past a man stopping traffic on a pedestrian crossing outside the Sydney Exhibition Centre September 13, 2014 where the science-fiction convention called “Oz Comic-Con” is currently being held. The two-day convention showcases “pop culture”, and includes appearances by actors from science-fiction movies and television shows. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)