Model Emily Ratajkowski attends Vogue Party as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2018 at on October 1, 2017 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)

Demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest against President Sebastian Piñera on October 21, 2019 in Santiago, Chile. President Sebastian Piñera suspended the 3.5% subway fare hike and declared the state of emergency for the first time since the return of democracy in 1990. Protests had begun on Friday and developed into looting and arson, generating chaos in Santiago, Valparaiso and a dozen other cities resulting in at least 8 dead. (Photo by Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

American model Emily Ratajkowski wore a cut out red dress while taking her dog Colombo for a stroll in New York City on Friday, July 25, 2023. (Photo by Santi/Splash News and Pictures)

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.

(L-R) Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, J K Rowling and Rupert Grint attend the World Premiere of “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1” held at The Odeon Leicester Square on November 11, 2010 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Eight-year-old Niu Dongfang trains at the No. 2 Beijing Shuangqiao School January 13, 2005 in Beijing, China. Most of students in the gymnastics school have to study more than five years from as young as age six before they become athletes. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images)

A model presents a creation from the Tom Ford Spring/Summer 2015 collection during London Fashion Week September 15, 2014. (Photo by Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)

“Felix Baumgartner (born 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria) is a skydiver and a BASE jumper. He is renowned for the particularly dangerous nature of the stunts he has performed during his career. Baumgartner spent time in the Austrian military where he practiced parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria is seen before his jump during the first manned test flight for Red Bull Stratos on March 15, 2012 in Roswell, New Mexico. In this test he reach the altitude 21800 meters (71500 ft) and landed safely near Roswell. Red Bull Stratos is a mission to the edge of the earths atmosphere, where upon reaching altitude of 120,000 feet by helium baloon, pilot and basejumper Felix Baumgartner will then freefall to the ground in an attempt to break the speed of sound. (Photo by Jay Nemeth/Red Bull via Getty Images)