The photo was taken exactly one month after the alleged UFO sighting by Lonnie Zamora in Socorro, New Mexico [April 24th, 1964].
Blowup of original photo
Most of the original photo
Our contributor Anthony Bragalia deals with the photo in his UFO Photo Hoaxes at The UFO Iconoclast(s) blog [http://ufocon.blogspot.com].
Mr. Bragalia contends the “spaceman” is, in reality, a jogger running up the hill that Mr. Templeton’s daughter was pictured upon.
(And Mr. Bragalia may now be suggesting that the image is that of a beekeeper, one of many who reside in the Cumberland area.)
We don’t find Mr. Bragalia’s suggestions to be satisfactory.
And we don’t think that James Templeton created a fake photograph.
Some -- see the comments section following Mr. Bragalia’s discourse, especially those of TemplarScribe – tie the photograph to an incident in Australia involving a missile test that was concomitant with a missile facility near the site of the photo.
Others believe the photo is actually that of a visiting spaceman, invisible to human eyes but caught by the exigencies of the photo camera.
None of the suggested explanations resonate with us, so we’ll be pursuing the incident further of course. (It’s truly intriguing.)
Meanwhile, what is your take on the photo?
Here is the contents of a letter, in response to a reader's question on this photo, that appeared in the DAILY MAIL in December 2002.
ReplyDelete"Having been a keen photographer for 40 years, I believe this is not a 'spaceman' but simply a person wearing a white top and a white cap with their back to the camera, enjoying the view - on a nice sunny day - of what lies beyond what seems to be a ridge.
The way the person's right arm is relaxed and positioned tends to confirm this, with the hand either resting on a hip or in a pocket. The actual position of the hand is hidden by the child's head.
Three photos were taken and this person appears in the background on only one.
Clearly, between the first and second photo the person walked unnoticed into the shot and then walked out of the shot before the third photo was taken.
Such a situation is common when a photographer is concentrating on the subject and oblivious to what's in the background - especially when the subject is a child.
Think how many photos you've seen with lamp posts or trees apparently coming out of people's heads. If only the photographer had looked first."
[from Mike Peers, Buckley, Flintshire (N.Wales)].
This more or less ties in with Anthony Bragalia's solution.
CDA,
ReplyDeleteWho jogs in a marshy area?
And way back when the photo was taken jogging was a non-event; nobody jogged -- they ran, usually at a track or a park.
MW
The writer does not actually specify jogging.
ReplyDeleteThe rocket launch site, Spadeadam, is some 25 miles (in a straight line) from the spot where the photo was taken. Was the 'spaceman' alongside the Blue Streak rocket launch at Woomera ever publicly shown, or has someone invented this tale afterwards?
Christopher:
ReplyDeleteYou point out, as usual, an interesting aside: where are the Woomera photographs, if any?
What's the provenance of the Woomera incident?
RR
What indeed?
ReplyDeleteI cannot remember now where I first heard of the 'Woomera connection'. Nor am I certain if any photographs were taken. The only thing I am positive of is that somebody (presumably associated with Blue Streak at Woomera) got to see the Templeton photo with the 'spaceman', learned where the photo was taken, and it was after this that the Woomera 'spaceman' tale emerged. Naturally, certain people put two and two together and decided that the events were connected!
As I say, Templeton's photo was taken about 25 miles from the Spadeadam test launch site - but who cares about such discrepancies? The connection was made, and stuck (for some enthusiasts anyway).
Exciting stuff! Or is it?
C:
ReplyDeleteThat's the mystery -- not the spaceman image, but how the Templeton's didn't see anyone around when they took the photograph.
And what's the source of the Woomera information?
The mystery of the image is compounded by the attendent mysteries...
RR