This picture taken on July 8, 2015 shows 13-year-old jockey Purevsurengiin Togtokhsuren (R) watching a horse rolling in the dirt after a training session in Khui Doloon Khudag, some 50 kms west of Ulan Bator. Despite being only 13 years old, Togtokhsuren is riding for the fifth time in the national races for Mongolia's summer festival, known as Naadam, lining up against some 170 other child jockeys. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) watch a class from outside the classroom in Havana, Cuba, October 12, 2016. Catherine Conley, the first American full-time student at Cuba's prestigious National Ballet School, hopes to gain an edge back home by learning the powerful Cuban style with its dazzling turns and jumps. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

This photo taken on April 25, 2015 shows a pet male monkey named “JK” (R) and his partner “Shaki” (L) eating dinner at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Jamil, a 45-year single Malaysian man, has unusual pets – two macaque monkeys. JK and Shaki, both nine years old, usually ride with Jamil on his motorcycle and they often have dinner together in public restaurants, drawing instant public awe. (Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP Photo)

Audrey Tautou attends “La Delicatesse” Paris Premiere on December 13, 2011 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

English television personality Gabby Allen attends the 2025 BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises at The Royal Festival Hall on May 11, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by James Curley)

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 staff member at the Rising Sun Anger Release Bar suits up in protective gear August 8, 2006 in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

A Brazil fan waits for the start of the group A World Cup soccer match between Brazil and Croatia, the opening game of the tournament, in the Itaquerao Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, June 12, 2014. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)