The Solway Firth Photo, 1964

Not really. It's very likely that there really was someone standing there, though, and that he just never noticed because he was concentrating on taking the snap of his daughter. I'd suggest his wife in a white anorak and a headscarf standing with her back to us, although the brain can be a funny thing when it comes to picking out patterns.

Other stuff - would you call the police because there was someone on your photo? I've taken photographs that have had strange things on them and I've never felt moved to call in the fuzz.

There is an extended version of this story where the same figure apparently appeared on CCTV pictures of some rocket launch or other. Wooo, spoooky!
 
Does it look like a man in a chemical safety suit? Does to me. So... A bit of Googling uncovered that Solway Firth has rather a lot of nasty industrial chemical stuff happening there. Not to mention the military proving and dumping ground for depleted uranium munitions and other nuclear waste. Here is but one of many references that I found:
Despite the oyster grounds, Saltom Bay [on the Firth] signals another change in the coastline, now high, composed largely of slag and topped with industrial complexes, often derelict. The plants include the large chemical works of Albright & Wilson, based on Triassic anhydrite, its conveyors silhouetted against the skyline. This firm are permitted to discharge 500t of zinc, chromium, copper and nickel per year into the Irish Sea, the largest such discharge around the British coastline, but Greenpeace claimed that, in addition to illegally high quantities of these heavy metals there were also aluminium, beryllium, iron, manganese, silver, tin, boron, vanadium and titanium present, metals for which discharge is not permitted. Mussels here have the highest levels of cadmium ever recorded around the British coastline. Greenpeace brought the first private prosecution of a chemical company under the 1989 Water Act against them and blocked their outfall pipe for good measure, also calling for a judicial review of the NRA for failing to take action on known illegal discharges, Greenpeace subsequently attempting to withdraw from the judicial review but the NRA refusing unless Greenpeace paid all their legal costs.
Click to expand...
http://www.canoeist.co.uk/guides/Lake District Coast.doc.

Such sensitive industrial chemical and nuclear works, especially in 1964, would explain the strange odours in the air that weren't weather-related, the man in the "spacesuit", and the inordinate interest by "government agents" (probably military security, actually). And I suspect the original photographer didn't want to reveal that he was probably trespassing on private property in the first place...

Sound logical enough?
 
A few points:

The figure is not "protuding at an odd angle", the horizon is skewed, and the figure is standing in a normal, upright position.

The figure needs not be in a special suit. A white jacket and a cap might look like this.

The entire rest of the story is unverified. Could be fabricated.

Hans
 
MRC_Hans said:
The entire rest of the story is unverified. Could be fabricated.
Click to expand...

Could be?

Police investigate ruined artistic photo?
Kodak investigates ruined artistic photo and offers reward?
MIB visit man?
Man voluntarily goes with men that refer to each other using numbers?

When I see it in the National Enquirer, then I'll believe it.
 
Firstly we should ignore the whole story - it just makes no sense for the reasons everyone has mentioned.

And what's with the
"The case was reported to the police and taken up by Kodak, the film manufacturers, who offered free film for life to anyone who could solve the mystery when their experts failed. It was not, as the police at first guessed, a simple double exposure with one negative accidentally printed on top of another during processing. "
It looks nothing like a double exposure - that would be nobidy's first assumption.

It's clearly a guy in a white top and hat facing away from the camera - I think he may have one of those things that people sometimes have hanging down the back to prevent their neck getting sunburnt, but I don't know.

I really don't know ghow this has become one of those infamous photos.

Let's have a look at it levelled out:
 
The Solway spaceman photo is one of the great iconic photos of ufology, but it's always looked to me like a figure with their back to the photographer, as richardm says, and I've been unable to understand the mystery.
 
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