76 | 100 The kiss of life
from the series 100 photos - 100 stories
Foto Koch celebrates 100 years and we tell THE best stories! Today's story is about the famous photo of Rocco Morabito, who captured the 'kiss of life' and thus went down in history. But what is so special about this picture? Find out here!
The Kiss of Life / Rocco MorabitoKiss of Life
The background to this picture is that two workers were carrying out routine maintenance work on low-voltage power lines. One of the workers grazed the top of the electricity pylon and immediately fell unconscious. He was secured with a harness so that he did not fall down. His colleague was able to reach him quickly from below and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, as it was obviously not possible to perform a heart-lung massage. After a few minutes, his colleague's pulse returned. He released him from his harness and carried him downstairs. He and another worker performed CPR on the floor, and the worker was moderately resuscitated when the paramedics arrived, and he eventually made a full recovery.
He lived another 35 years. He died in 2002 at the age of 64. His rescuer is still alive today! The photographer happened to be driving past the site and saw the worker hanging down from above. He immediately called the emergency services and shortly afterwards took out his camera and took eight pictures. Morabito won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1968 for "The Kiss of Life".
