In May and June, Jake Michaels was in Tijuana, a city he has visited several times in the seven years since he first began driving down from Southern California to attend soccer matches with friends along the border. He set out to explore the themes of music, family and tradition in Mexican culture, employing the vibrantly painted buildings as backdrops.

The photo above was taken at the Tijuana Pride parade. “This is right about the time everyone was getting out the cars and off the trucks and congregating in the main square for a big dance party,” Mr. Michaels said, describing a crowd of about 1,000 people who lined the street, waving and taking selfies with the drag queens. “For that moment they were celebrities.”