[imagesource: Max Pixel]

A photograph of a smartly-dressed man chatting on a mobile phone while standing on a busy street corner is nothing too noteworthy.

Unless the picture is from the 1940s.

A few eagle-eyed Facebook sleuths have pinpointed an odd-looking fellow appearing as though he is talking on a cellphone held to his ear in a black-and-white photograph originating from World War II.

The image sparked time travel conspiracy theories when its owner Kristján Hoffman shared the shot in 2016 on the Facebook group Gamlar ljósmyndir, which translates to “Old Photographs”, per Indy100:

Hoffman wrote on Facebook: “The American army is taking over Icelandic splendour, as you can see.

“One thing that draws attention to this beautiful picture is that above the window, in the corner in the middle of the picture, a man is leaning and is on a cell phone.”

The New York Post adds:

“I don’t know what to say, I don’t think he’s just talking on the phone… He’s in a stupor, standing alone and wearing a different headdress than the others and a scarf and acting like we would do today,” Hoffmann added.

Not only is his hand position suggestive of a time warp, but his clothes and general stance are also really suspect for the time.

The man’s light-coloured coat, flat cap, and direct look into the camera are really rather off:

Image: Kristján Hoffman

The image was taken in Iceland’s capital Reykjavík in 1943, long before the invention of portable telephone devices.

The first mobile phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, was invented and sold 30 years on, in 1973.

So why is this man holding a phone up to his ear???

Image: Kristján Hoffman

The Mirror reported that Hoffman said the man was “far ahead in technology”, and other commentators join him in being convinced that the flat cap-wearing fella looks like he is from another era.