Tens of thousands of vehicles damaged by super storm Sandy are being temporarily stored on runways and taxiways at Calverton Executive Airpark in Calverton, New York, on January 9, 2013 in this aerial view. Insurance Auto Auctions Inc, a salvage auto auction company specializing in total-loss vehicles, acquired the cars and trucks that were damaged, destroyed or flooded by the storm and needed a place to store them. The company made a deal with the Town of Riverhead to lease the airport land and then the vehicles are auctioned online. (Photo by Stan Honda/AFP Photo)

“Coming back home at 5am sunrise, I was just beginning to digest the grand event I was lucky to witness and cover: the wedding of the grandson of one of the most influential spiritual leaders in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community...”. – Ronen Zvulun via Reuters. Photo: Ultra-orthodox Jewish wedding in Israel. Tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews of the Belz Hasidic dynasty gather at the wedding ceremony of Rabbi Shalom Rokach in Kiryat Belz, in Jerusalem, on May 21, 2013. Around 25,000 ultra-orthodox Jews took part, making it one of the biggest weddings of the past few years. (Photo by Gil Cohen)

A view of the Tianducheng development in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province August 1, 2013. Tianducheng, developed by Zhejiang Guangsha Co. Ltd., started constructing in 2007 and was known as a knockoff of Paris with a scaled-replica of the Eiffel Tower, standing 108 metres, and Parisian houses. Although designed to accommodate at least ten thousand people, Tianducheng remains sparsely populated and is now considered as a “ghost town”, according to local media. (Photo by Aly Song/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.

Runners wearing full solid-coloured bodysuits take part in a marathon in Tel Aviv, Israel February 26, 2016. Tens of thousands took part in the event, which saw streets closed off from Rokach Boulevard in the north to Jaffa’s Jerusalem Boulevard in the south. Other than the main 42-kilometer (26-mile) run, the day’s events also included a half-marathon route, several shorter circuits, a handcycle race for the handicapped and a mini-marathon for kids of a single kilometer (0.6 miles). (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

Iraqis run for cover as they flee Mosul's Al-Tayaran neighbourhood on February 28, 2017, during an offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the area from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. Hundreds of civilians fled through the desert to escape fighting and privation in Mosul, joining thousands of others who left their homes as conditions worsen in the city's west. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

A journalist operate a harness with multiple recording devices capable of recording and live streaming outside the Great Hall of the People where the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held in Beijing, China, Friday, March 3, 2017. Thousands of delegates have gathered at the Chinese capital for the opening of the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which advises the rubberstamp parliament, whose annual session begins Sunday. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Sergei Bobkov, 59, paints Siberian cedar nut oil onto a life-size sculpture of Pallas's Cat, also known in Russia as Manul Cat, which he made from Siberian cedar wood shavings using more than 700 thousand pieces over four years, in the village of Kozhany, southwest of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, April 28, 2017. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)