It’s rare that we capture life’s most breathtaking moments in all of their glory from behind the lens of a camera.
So often, the flash washes out the detail, or modern technology in all of its wonder still simply fails to convey the vivid intricacies that only being there in the flesh can provide.
Well, the “Kiss of Life” is one of those rare photographical gems.
It’s an iconic photo that captured the hearts of America back in 1967, but even 50 years later, J.D. Thompson of Jacksonville, Florida, remembers it like it was yesterday.
On the 50th anniversary of the Pulitzer-Prize winning picture, First Coast News interviewed the man behind one of the most treasured photos of our time.
“A lot of people can’t believe it was 50 years ago,” said Thompson. “It’s hard for me to believe.”
The image was taken when he was just a 26-year-old line man working for City Electric. Thompson’s co-worker, Randall Champion, was approximately 400 feet away when he gripped a live wire that sent an electrifying shock through his body.
“He got a hold of the hot wire with his four fingers,” he explained, “and [the electrical current] came out his—I think it was the left foot. And it blew a hole where it came out his foot.”
A lineman’s work is known to be extremely perilous, and Thompson and his teammates had heard one too many horror stories of men who didn’t survive the high-voltage shock.
“It’s just a matter of how long you’re hooked on to it, you know? And, a lot of people have been killed instantly.”
Regardless of thinking he was already dead, Thompson ran to the pole where Champion was lifelessly hanging 20 feet above ground.