Red Alert

Is This Just Another Flasher?

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I often use the phrase ''camera-brain'' when I refer to the mode of heightened perception common to photographers (professionals and amateurs alike) who walk down a street with a camera in their hand or slung round their shoulder.

I shot these two images a couple of months ago, on a bright, sunny summer afternoon just before the tragic bushfires hit my home state.

I guess at first glance it looks like one of the red-and-blue lights on the roof of a police car, doesn’t it? But no, it isn’t. It’s a footpath-sited lamp that is much larger than the average police light. When I first saw it, I was puzzled. I wondered what purpose a solitary light could possibly serve, especially in such a strange location.

Then I looked around and realized that it serves a specific safety purpose. You see, it is only a few feet away from a sliding, concertina-type access door to an underground parking lot. That’s when I realised the purpose behind the light.

It’s located at car window level. And it's housed, as you can see, in a thick rubber foundation, designed to prevent the lamp breaking in the event of an impact. It starts flashing automatically when the access door opens. Because the door can be out of the line of sight to some pedestrians (and drivers who are looking for a brief illegal parking spot) it serves as a perfectly-placed warning.


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