Jim Templeton, a local fireman from Carlisle, Cumberland, England, took his wife, and daughter for a trip at Burgh Marsh on May 23, 1964.
Jim was a photography enthusiast as well, and like all new parents, his main motivation was his five-year-old daughter Elizabeth.
Templeton snapped three photographs of his daughter on that family outing. When they returned home, Jim got the photos developed.
However, the technician who processed the photographs pointed out that a strange thing in the background had spoiled one of the pictures.
Mysterious Photograph Of Unidentified Person:
When Jim took the photo, he was confident that nobody stood in the background. His wife was standing behind him. The other two pictures in the sequence show no such symbol.
When the photo-developer brought Templeton’s attention to the eccentric figure, he took it to the police.
The police examined the pictures and stated that there was nothing suspicious about it. Soon after a local newspaper published the story, the news was all over the town.
It soon drew the attention of all kinds of curious people who were trying to solve the mystery surrounding the image.
Following the publication of the images in various newspapers, several different theories were proposed at that time.
Solway Firth Spaceman Photograph Theories:
One of the strangest theories depicts that Jim Templeton had captured the picture of the alien. Both the ship and aliens were shielded by some cloaking device. This made them invisible to the human eye but not to the camera.
Some reports suggest that two mysterious men(also referred to as Men in Black) visited Templeton’s house, asked him to take them to the exact area where the events took place.
Jim Templeton explained later that the two men who visited him refused to disclose their identity. However, they said they worked for the government and were only identified by the numbers.
After reaching the location, Jim explained to them that he had not seen the figure at that moment. Hearing this, the men became angry and immediately drove away, left him alone at the site. Later, Templeton termed the two men as frauds.
According to England’s investigative journalist, David Clarke, the figure was Annie Templeton, Jim’s wife, who had accidentally “photobombed” the snapshot.
Her husband couldn’t see her due to the blind spot in Pentacon F SLR camera, which allowed him to see only seventy percent of what the lens had captured.
In the photo, Annie stood with her back towards the camera, and the image was over-exposed, caused her blue dress to appear white.
The other pictures by Jim had also captured some portions of his wife wearing a light blue dress.
Did Someone Accidentally Film An Unknown Picture On Camera?
Trying to solve the mystery, Jim took a photograph and the negative to Kodak firm, to check whether original had been manipulated in any way.
Templeton also wanted to validate if it was some photographic error.
Experts from the Kodak have tested the picture for any signs of altering or tampering, but there was none.
Kodak had even started a reward of free film for a year to anyone who could solve the mystery. However, the bounty went unclaimed.
According to ufologists, this was a clear case of a “spaceman”. The spaceman had put on a helmet, a white suit, and a dark visor.
A few days later, a Blue Streak missile test in South Australia was aborted due to two large men on the firing line.
Templeton had mentioned that the technicians later saw the photograph in an Australian newspaper and claimed that the figures were exactly the same.
Other Details Of Jim Templeton’s Story:
Jim Templeton was already famous in Cumbria before his pic went viral. A historian and amateur photographer, Jim’s archive of photos was a well-used resource by the local newspapers.
Just weeks before the ‘spaceman’ event, Jim had tricked his friends with a fake five-pound note he had used his photographic skills.
Did Jim Templeton fake the spaceman image for a prank? In 1997, photo-expert Roger Green of Bradford University studied the picture. He concluded that the photo had been modified with the superimposition technique.
Another theory says that his friends in the local photo lab might have mocked the photo. It was way of getting back at him for practical jokes he had played on them.
Over four decades, the picture has been in the public domain.
In an interview with BBC, Jim said,
I had received thousands of letters across the world with various ideas or possibilities – most of which make little sense to me.
The person who took this snap, Jim Templeton, died on the 27th of November, 2011.
It’s been more than fifty years, and Solway Firth Spaceman Photo remains unclear. However, this snapshot is still creating lots of buzz among paranormal investigators.
