Shaping experience with art: Henry J. Spencer’s new book is a spiritual adventure.

Dr. Henry J. Spencer is a Touro Synagogue institution. With his dashing tweed and seersucker suits, his permanent good cheer, and, especially, his angelic turns leading the Sabbath prayers, he embodies the spirit of the Newport “kehillah.” Which is to say – we’re very proud of him. But although it seems that most every Jew in Rhode Island has enjoyed a cozy meal with Henry and his wife Felicia in their Newport home, sung along to his melodies at the synagogue, or both, his life as an artist and curator is too often overlooked.

“Illuminating Nature” is the author’s third book. In “The Art and Design of Ruth Abraams Spencer” (2009), Henry compiled the work of his late mother (1910-1980), an accomplished artist, interior designer and Jewish community leader. “Capturing Bialik’s Butterflies: Poet’s Voice Meets Camera’s Eye” (2017), which also toured as a museum exhibit, combines the truest appreciation for Bialik’s poetry (a Spencer family tradition) with photographs of monarch butterflies, all taken by Henry at the Butterfly Garden at Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven, Connecticut. The effect is magical, and the book is a must-read for Bialik fans everywhere.

But “Illuminating Nature” represents a further leap in Henry’s artistic development. This newest volume, rather than reframing the work of another artist, is nothing but free expression. The monarchs in “Capturing Bialik’s Butterflies” served to illustrate and uplift the great Hebrew poet; the photographs in “Illuminating Nature” are the stars of their own show. Henry now entrusts the reader to his own talent for a “photographer’s spiritual quest”, and thankfully he has a camel-load.

Each folio of the book includes one of Henry’s photographs faced with an appropriate quotation from Jewish tradition on the opposite page. The images are remarkable, but the true value of the work is in its arrangement, on which Henry collaborated with a fellow artist, his daughter Shoshana. To quote Ruth Abraams Spencer regarding Oriental rugs (“Art and Design” p. 131): the self-expression “lies in its pattern”. 

The book’s three parts (“Trees”, “Mushrooms” and “Flowers”) are, like movements in a symphony, intentionally constructed to provide the reader with a particular experience. Gnarly macro images of knots and stumps give some pages a Gothic mood (from these alone you can guess that he’s a dermatologist), which breaks with relief into pink cherries and sunshine and a quotation from the “Sefer Hayashar,” “thus it is with the soul . . .” In the next section, the lens tilts up until mushrooms form stems: turn the page to see them bloom into flowers and become “As a rose among the thorns” (Song of Songs 2:2). 

Henry’s expert camera captures what is always before us, yet rarely seen. Each image is a surprise, and every quotation transforms that reaction into the next stop on a spiritual adventure. It’s the mark of a mature artist: not merely to create, but to shape experience with art. For those who know Henry as a neighbor, friend or fellow congregant, this book will feel like an extension of his warm and elegant presence. If you haven’t met him, “Illuminating Nature” will make sure you want to. Either way, it’s not to be missed.

For further details or to purchase a copy of “Illuminating Nature”, apply to the author at hjspencer180@gmail.com Spencer will also be available in person on Sept. 14 at the Jewish Culture Fest where he will be selling his books.

GERSHON KLAPPER serves as the rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Israel at the Touro Synagogue of Newport, RI.