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 long skater speeds away on the rain-wet ice on lake Orlangen, South of Stockholm on December 15, 2013. Meteorologists forecast temperatures around 5 degrees for southern Sweden. (Photo by Tobias Rostlund/AFP Photo)

P.S. All pictures, as usual, are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).

Wang Zeyu, 4, a fee-paying enthusiast of kung fu, practises during a training class at a kung fu school near the Shaolin Temple April 10, 2005 in Dengfeng, Henan Province, China. Zeyu's father sent him to the school from his home in Jiangsu Province, thousands kilometres away from Dengfeng, when he was just 3 years old. And his father must pay 9,800 yuan (US$1195) for one year's tuition at the school, a huge amount for most Chinese. There are more than 80 kung fu schools that line the road from the city of Dengfeng to the Shaolin Temple with hundreds and thousands of young kung-fu lovers from all over the country and beyond studying here. All the schools use the Shaolin name to attract students as the Shaolin Temple is the birthplace of Chinese Kung Fu. (Photo by Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

“The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president's emergency satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States of America to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States. It is a metallic Zero Halliburton briefcase carried in a black leather “jacket”. The package weighs around 45 pounds (20 kilograms). A small antenna protrudes from the bag near the handle”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A U.S. Military officer carries the “football”, which carries nuclear launch codes, on South Lawn after returning with U.S. President George W. Bush to the White House January 7, 2002 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

In his series “Ballerinas of Cairo”, photographer Mohamed Taher documents Egyptian dancers making the city streets their stage – pirouetting, leaping and posing their way through their country’s sprawling capital. The photos are, at first glance, stunning snapshots of a city’s vibrant culture in motion. (Photo by Mohamed Taher/Ballerinas of Cairo)

“Wave Gotik Treffen 2010 am Eingang des AgraParks / in der Innenstadt von Leipzig”. (Photo by Danny Sotzny)

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“Vull sortir a la superficie, i ... respirar”. (Photo by Véronique Carreño Andreu)

P.S. Most pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).

A monkey runs away with a piece of bread in it's mouth at a park in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday, March 4, 2013. (Photo by Mark Baker/AP Photo)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).