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.

Mask dancers take part in a parade during the the International Festival of Masquerade Games “Surva” in the town of Pernik, some 30 km from Sofia, Bulgaria, January 31, 2016. (Photo by Vassil Donev/EPA)

This picture was taken in the 1890's and shows a group of loggers hauling a heavy load. It is hard to even picture how they got the logs stacked that high. It is also hard to imagine how they keep it from tipping over.

Kaw-Claa, a Tlingit native woman in full potlatch dancing costume, 1906. (Photo by Case & Draper/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

Christopher Blevins from the USA in action on his way winning the Cross Country Short Track Elite Men UCI XCC Mountain Bike World Series race in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, 25 May 2025. (Photo by Maxime Schmid/EPA)

Roman Cervenka #10 of Czechia celebrates with the trophy and gets a beer thrown on him from his teammates during IHF Ice Hockey World Championship gold medal celebrations with fans at Old Town Square on May 27, 2024 in Prague, Czech Republic. (Photo by RvS.Media/Monika Majer/Getty Images)

Artist Paolo Curcio craves tiny bas-relief sculptures into coins – a traditional art form known as the hobo nickel. Curcio’s coins feature intricately detailed hobos, skulls and a variety of pop culture characters. Plastic castings of his works are available online.

“Sony Bravia has been a bench mark in quality advertising for years now and I’m very happy to have been chosen by McCann Worldwide to shoot this campaign for them.
We flew to a volcano in Costa Rica where it took the inhabitants of an entire village a full week to pluck all the flower petals…. enough to fill two huge lorries!
With the help of a special effects team, the petals were blown and exploded through our landscapes creating hugely detailed vista which echoes the extreme detail of Sony’s new 4k tv.”