A man is being hung upside down, tied with a safety belt at the top of the pole, losing his consciousness. On the next pole another man is hanging, performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for the unconscious man. What on earth has happened?
In July, 1967, the city of Jacksonville, Florida, U.S., was blacked out due to a sudden increase in electricity usage because of heat wave. In order to recover this, a utility worker named Randall G. Champion climbed a utility pole and was working on it. Suddenly, he was struck by electricity and lost his consciousness. At the sudden accident, his co-worker J.D. Thompson reached him hurriedly and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Around then, Rocco Morabito, a photographer who visited the nearby area happened to witness the scene and took a shot for the urgent moment.
Champion who might have died on the spot was able to survive thanks to Thompson’s quick reaction. Despite strong electric current flowing on the body of Champion, Thompson grabbed him without hesitation. The photo depicting this beautiful scene, entitled “The Kiss of Life,” won the Pulitzer Prize for spot photography in the following year.