Bethel University’s ‘resident scholar’ photography professor
From Yale to bowling-league pranks, artist Lex Thompson reflects on his career.
Dusk falls as Lex Thompson sits inside a log cabin in the Michigan woods with his friend Chris Larson. He is there for an exhibition at Interlochen Center for the Arts. At the time, Thompson didn’t know that this exhibition would pave the way for his career in photography and education.
“[Chris Larson] hung out in our log cabin with us all night, and we had a mutual friend that told me about this job opening [at Bethel], so that’s how I ended up here,” Thompson said.
“I had no real expectations. It’s just moving along, doing the things that seemed good at the time.” — Lex Thompson, photography professor
Fast forward to today, Bethel University photography professor Lex Thompson sits in his office discussing interests, hobbies and how he got to be here today.
“I had no real expectations,” Thompson said. “It’s just moving along, doing the things that seemed good at the time.”
“Gestures people make, such as making amusement parks, are very aspirational gestures, and the fact that it collapsed doesn’t mean we’re idiots.” — Kenneth Steinbach, art professor
Thompson’s work is included in collections at the Getty Research Institute, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Stanford University, Yale University and more. But he spends his workdays at Bethel University in his office, decorated with furry animal masks, big photo cutouts of sandwiches, an iPod classic sitting on a speaker dock and various paintings and art of the Last Supper. When he’s on campus, he teaches his Introduction to Photography and History of Design classes or collaborates with other professors at Bethel University to work on projects.
Beyond his work at Bethel, Thompson’s individual work focuses on hope and failure in the American landscape — a theme he’s made photographs of in locations such as abandoned amusement parks, a run-down cinema and empty rest stops. To him, these locations express the idea of hope for something that was once grand, but that now falls apart. His colleague, Kenneth Steinbach, another professor in the art department at Bethel University, speaks of Thompson’s work.
“Gestures people make, such as making amusement parks, are very aspirational gestures, and the fact that it collapsed doesn’t mean we’re idiots,” Steinbach said. “It just means we sometimes won’t live up entirely to our aspirations, and we end up living in the space of hope.”
Thompson earned two MFAs — one at Yale and one at the San Francisco Art Institute. This time in school allowed him the chance to do studio work and eventually become a professor.
Thompson’s teaching style is a key point to his reputation at Bethel. Professor of Design Jessica Henderson has worked alongside Thompson for 12 years. She describes him as “funny, dry, witty and extremely smart” and also applauds his pinball feat. To the right of the skee ball machine and behind the pool table in Bethel’s Underground. Henderson also mentions his demanding classes, saying his students “learn a lot from him.”
Bella Haveman, a student in his Photography 1 class, has had a positive experience.
“I like how he adds random pictures or weird questions to his quizzes to be more engaging, and one can tell he genuinely cares about his student’s success,” Haveman said.
Thompson and Steinbach play off of each other with gags. Oftentimes, it’s spurred by the question, “What can we get our students to believe?” One time, the two played a long-running gag where both of them convinced their students they had a professional bowling league. Another time, Steinbach had a class confident that Thompson was really good at doing the worm dance move and that if students demanded enough, he would do it. Just to keep work interesting.
From exhibiting work in places like the Tokyo Institute of Photography to becoming Bethel’s pinball champion, Thompson finds a way to stand out in Arden Hills, Minnesota.
