Jim Wehtje's X-Ray Shell Photographs Head to Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum

Key facts

• An exhibition of 23 X-ray shell photographs by Jim Wehtje opens October 10 at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium in Sanibel, Florida.
• National Geographic featured Wehtje's image of an arthritic spider conch (Harpago arthriticus) in August 2026, associated with the upcoming museum exhibition.
• Wehtje began creating X-ray photographs in 1996 after studying biomedical photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where professor Michael Peres recommended him for hospital research equipment access.
• His work appeared on the cover and as the theme of the Photodisc.com/2 catalog in 1998, and his starfish X-rays were used on Adobe GoLive CS2 packaging in 2004.
• In January he released Earth Shell Forms X-Rayed, a self-published print-on-demand book that took over 14 months to create and covers mollusk shells plus plastic and glass enclosures.
• Wehtje uses low-energy X-rays for delicate plants, combines multiple exposures digitally similar to HDR, and sometimes adds color to monochrome radiographs.
• He found round, shiny cowries the hardest shell family to photograph, using a cross-polarized light setup to eliminate direct reflections.
• Wehtje lives in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and has been producing X-ray imagery for approximately three decades.