Early morning shark Sean McKeon pictured during severe flooding Oliver Plunkett street, Cork city, on February 3, 2014. (Photo by Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

A group of costumed fans attend Comic-Con International at San Diego Convention Center on July 12, 2015 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/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.

A man crosses Canal Street in the wind and rain from Hurricane Isaac August 29, 2012. (Photo by David J. Phillip/Associated Press)

“The inspiration for this book came to me one afternoon as I watched my son, Hudson, playing with his toy bus. I was trying to keep pace with his three-year-old mind as he got deeper and deeper into a fantasy involving nothing more than a yellow plastic box and armless figurines. At least that’s what I saw. He saw frantic commuters rushing to catch the 77 local bus to Australia. He jumped in place, mouth open and slapping his knees, joyously reacting to a world I couldn’t see, but one powerfully present for him...”. – Jordan Matter

Photo: “Dancers Among Us”: Macys, NYC – Annmaria Mazzini. (Photo by Jordan Matter)

Wadha al-Sayyed, wife of captive Lebanese soldier Khaled Moqbel, protests for his release and government action, near burning tyres blocking a road in Beirut, December 15, 2014. More than two dozen members of the Lebanese security forces are being held by Sunni Islamists. (Photo by Hasan Shaaban/Reuters)

Believers burn dried oak branches, which symbolizes the Yule log, on Orthodox Christmas Eve in front of the St. Sava temple in Belgrade, Serbia, January 6, 2016. Serbian Orthodox believers celebrate Christmas on January 7, according to the Julian calendar. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A competitor walks on tightrope during a performance in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China, May 7, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)