Contact ImagesUnviewable - Issue Persisting through 4.5.5

Contact Profile Images display as "broken" in interface and when accessing them directly via generated link. See screenshot. No error messages thrown.

Images can be accessed directly by hitting:

http://site.com/sites/default/files/civicrm/custom/image.jpg

but NOT by hitting the URLs generated in the contact/view page:

http://site.com/civicrm/contact/imagefile?photo=image.jpg

We have absolutely no custom code running that would interfere with the civicrm backend in this manner.

Removing the image and reuploading does not resolve the issue.

I can confirm this issue is NOT present in the current civicrm 4.5.5 demo site, I'm assuming its a "fresh install". Our site has been upgraded to current for several years now.

Related to: https://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-14499