Bystander | On Commission

My portrait of Leah Morgan from Newport shot for Fabulous magazine.

The bystander effect is a strange social phenomenon whereby people either fail to act or respond slowly to those in distress if no one else present is helping. There's several explanations for it including group cohesiveness and responsibility diffusion, it's very odd but nevertheless very real.  There's been a couple of times in my life where I wish I'd responded differently to instances where someone needed help. Luckily nothing as serious as the circumstances Leah (above) came across.  Leah brilliantly and bravely talked down a woman who was attempting to end her life by jumping from a bridge in Newport town centre.  

Mrs Iwan Jones is incredibly good at dealing with drama in public. In the last year I've seen her distract a young child in a supermarket whilst the child's mother was being treated by paramedics for a heart attack, she helped a distressed 90 year old man who'd taken a horrible fall in a bus-stop in Inverness and pulled the car over on a duel carriageway to ask a lady who was vomiting on the adjacent footpath if she needed any help. My hero.