3 ideas
A photograph of a stranger does not capture who that person is. It records a brief negotiation in which the subject decides how to present themselves to an outsider holding a camera. Reading an image this way moves attention from the subject's supposed essence to the relationship and power between the one looking and the one being looked at.
On the road, the writer is both the one who sees strangers and the stranger others see. Being a stranger is therefore a temporary position relative to a place, not a fixed identity. Recognising this reversibility turns observation into mutual exposure rather than one-way looking.
The book shows Iduma's visa to Morocco refused repeatedly, while his companion Lejam, holding a Canadian passport, is exempt. The contrast shows how the passport a traveller carries decides who may cross a border.