“The way I work is that I have to take photos of the show,” says Marco Ovando, describing his assignment as the official photographer for Voss Events’ long-running RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq the World Tour. “So I know they’re very nervous. It’s opening night. They want everything to be perfect.”

They, of course, are the Werq the World queens, superstar drag performers like the current cast of Jimbo, Daya Betty, Kim Chi, Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, Jorgeous, and Jaida Essence Hall.

“I never even talk to them much before,” says Ovando, elaborating on his strategy for capturing the onstage showgirl fantasy. “I go into the audience and just get a spot and shoot from there. They don’t even know. Because I don’t want to put pressure. Second day, I do backstage because that’s other stuff that people would like to see.”

That’s where the divas let their hair down, and not just figuratively. “They’re a little bit more relaxed,” says Ovando. “We have the thrill of opening night’s done. So it’s easy for me to actually grab them and be able to shoot them more like what you see in the [behind the scenes] chapter of the book.”

Ovando’s uncannily glam yet intimate behind-the-scenes shots of the divas on tour fill chapter three of his glossy new coffee table book The Dolls, Volume III, which also includes chapters entitled The Portraits, The Shows, and The Parties.

For years, the Werq the World Tour queens have referred to themselves as The Dolls, which inspired the first volume, published by Ovando and Voss Events in 2021. A surprise hit, the book spawned a second volume extending the celebration of this generation of drag stars and Ovando’s unique gift for capturing them on camera.

A New Yorker by way of Guatemala, Ovando, who’s gay, rose from nightlife promoter to music video director of Cazwell’s viral hit “Ice Cream Truck,” among other tracks, then preferred photo wizard of drag stars everywhere. Inspired by his close friendships with many of the queens over the years, he’s developed a refined eye for photographing them.

He didn’t plan a sequel, but after the second in 2023, there was always a plan for a third, he says. And he’s proud of this one. “When the second one came out, it’s like, ‘Okay, this needs to be a killer book.’ So I made a little effort just to make it more like how it was in my head,” he shares.

“I felt that my work has definitely improved in photographing drag. I mean, I’ve been a photographer for over 30 years now, but this definitely was something that I was really eager to show the world.”

METRO WEEKLY: I have to start today with greetings from the occupied city of Washington, D.C. You guys in New York are next, they’re threatening.

MARCO OVANDO: Wait, what do you mean threatening? I just literally got back in the country two days ago. What’s happening?

MW: Oh, I’m talking about Trump’s hostile police takeover of Washington, which he announced with his press conference yesterday. Because of the crime being so horrible that it’s an “emergency” here, and it’s only a matter of time before New York, Baltimore, basically any–

OVANDO: Blue state?

MW: Yeah, well, I was going to say any mostly Black or Black mayor-run cities — and that equals New York City at the moment.

OVANDO: So what does that mean, the police takeover? I mean, I feel dumb right now not knowing this. I literally was in Mexico.

MW: This makes me want to ask, where were you, because it must have been really exciting, busy, or relaxing?

OVANDO: I literally got back to New York Sunday night, and then I’m leaving tomorrow for Connecticut. That’s where we’re kicking off Werq the World, the North American leg. So that’s where my job goes, because — and that’s part of the book — one of my jobs is to document the opening shows to do all the photos for press for the rest of the tour. We’re leaving tomorrow, so I might not be here with that takeover.

MW: So let’s get started on The Dolls. First of all, I think the photos are really beautiful. Were you working on this already when you put out volume two?

OVANDO: So, to be honest, when the first volume came out, we never really thought how well it [would be] received. And then for me, always, every time a book would come out, I always feel like I have newer, better content to show. So that’s why we were like, “Okay, let’s work on the second book.” And the second book came out, and then I felt like my work started shifting a little bit, incorporating more of my fashion background with the stuff that I was shooting recently. So I was like, “Okay, we need to do a third book for this.” Just because I felt like it definitely had changed a little. It’s the same content, just different.

I felt like I became an artist, more artsy and more fashion in this book than the other ones. I mean, even people who don’t know the show or the queens that are featured on it are all like, “This looks like a fashion book. There just happens to be drag featured in it.” So that makes me happy. That’s what I wanted to accomplish. I think this might be the last. It’s always good to end it with three.

MW: You say you wanted volume three to reflect more of how your artistry has changed. What are some of the motifs that you wanted to keep running?

OVANDO: So for me, I always felt that the access that I have into that world is very unique and a lot of people don’t have. One of the main things for me is to make sure that every individual — the Dolls, specifically in this book — they feel very comfortable with me and they know what I do. They know my work, so their trust is very important to me, because at the end they know that I’m not going to make them look like any other way than the way they have to be. Show the fantasy.

So something that shifted in this book, that I knew I wanted to do, is I started creating a fashion editorial when we would go on tour. I would create a story, treat it like a fashion editorial. Then I would create these situations where I would play with different lighting, different composition, not the usual. When you do drag, especially in my opinion, you need to have a very well-lit and straight front face just to cover everything, just show the really good fantasy.

But with this I started experimenting more with my lighting, with things that would make it a little bit more — I don’t want to keep saying fashion, but a different thing. Something that in drag photography you’ve never really seen. I wanted to show a different way of how to photograph drag. One of the parts that I really love about the book is The Show part. Because if you look at the images, it still looks like they were posing for me. But it’s actually a live show in front of thousands of people when they’re performing. They’re not even aware of where I am to take the photo. But when you look at the image, you’re like, “Oh, that’s a show?”

So that was a very important part of the whole thing — and that’s a whole process to shoot the shows. That’s going to happen to me this week because I have to shoot the whole Werq the World. So that was the thing, just to show it a different way. I am happy when I start seeing more photographers shooting drag and I see a little bit of me in there. It’s very flattering to see that I can inspire all the photographers to do [it]. So that’s pretty much what I was trying to aim for with this one.

MW: Now a question about something that inspires you, because on the cover for volume one you have Violet Chachki, and volume two Aquaria. This book has Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, who appears throughout the book. So, as a muse, what most excites you about working with her?

OVANDO: I’m always surrounded by the queens that inspire me, and Violet Chachki is perfect. For me, everything about her. So that’s the first shoot that we did together and the first time we worked together, and when I was putting the [first] book together, I was like, “This image feels so strong to show what I do,” and having someone that is this level.

Aquaria was different. I saw Aquaria grow up in New York since the early days when she came to New York. I thought she was 17, she says 18, but that early. I’ve been photographing her since those days when I used to work in nightlife and I would always photograph her. So I have so much content on her before Drag Race. To be honest, I didn’t know that she did drag. For me she was just a fabulous club kid until she told me, “Well I’m going to Drag Race.” And I’m like, “What?” “And I’m going there because I’m going to win.” And I’m like, “Okay, Aquaria.” And look at her, right? [She won.]

I saw Vanjie as everyone else did on TV, since season 10, that famous exit that she had. When I met her in person when she was doing season 11 — they were doing a tour and we met — the evolution of her from where she started to what she became, into All Stars 9 last year, it was incredible.

But also on a personal level, out of everyone she’s like my real sister. Our friendship is beyond just work. Quick fact, my 50th was last year in December, and I brought all my friends back home to Guatemala where I’m from to get them to know where I came from. She was there. But also besides the personal relationship I have with her, how she has evolved in her artistry is — everyone has witnessed it. Look, if you think about that photo of the cover, that was one of her looks that she featured on All Stars Season 9. The beauty of it was beyond, to me, to the point that I knew I wanted to have Vanjie on the cover just because of what it represents to me personally, and also the evolution that she had.

Then when I was going through the photos, that one [the cover photo] came out and I’m like, “Huh.” And then literally, I never told her. I just did it. I had mentioned it briefly, she didn’t really believe it until the day I was like, “Hey, here.” And she still can’t believe it. I just got a message from her over the weekend saying how she still can’t picture the fact that she’s featured on the book as a cover, which makes me very happy.

MW: There are great shots of Vanjie in a look inspired by the Rihanna CFDA Style Icon look. And then there’s Vanjie as Pretty Woman. There are a lot of great fashion looks, in general, I’m just picking out those of hers. How involved are you in the fashion styling? How much are the Dolls styling themselves? How are the looks and everything coming together?

OVANDO: That’s another passion of mine — styling. I always say styling is the hardest job in the fashion world. But the only shoot that I styled in that book was Lana Ja’Rae, the one that she’s walking on the street and everything. That was the only one that I pulled the clothes. The rest is all their stuff. It’s everyone’s look, everyone’s dresses.

The reason why you see Vanjie in so many different situations through the book is that when All Stars 9 came out, we had to shoot every runway look for her, because you know how they post on their social. So those were the looks that she presented on the show. My job was to think about how am I going to shoot this one, how am I going to turn that one in? We shot all her looks in two days in L.A. We were fighting at the end, which is so funny. We never fought, but we were at each other’s throats, because for her herself, you have to change your nails, your hair, your wig, everything. Then me, thinking about a different concept that would look like a completely different shoot, but all happening in two days.

The cover of the book, that was shot in the studio day that we had. And another six looks were shot that day. But my job was to make it that it didn’t look like it was the same thing. So, I changed the lighting, changed the background. It was very challenging. But that’s why the base of the book is a lot of Vanjie in that way.

The Rihanna look that you’re mentioning — so the Werq the World 2025 that we’re actually on, it started in April in Europe. I was flown to Dublin and to Warsaw to do what I’m doing this weekend, just document everything that we do, and I knew I had to finish my book. So that’s when I was taking advantage to photograph people like Sasha Velour, who’s in the book. More of Roxxxy, more of the girls that were on the tour. But then when Vanjie came out with that look, that’s exactly the evolution I’m talking about. The tour is called Werq the World Awards 2025. Each of them are impersonating an artist, so they have to do a very famous performance of the artist in it. That’s why you see Derrick Barry with the snake because she’s doing [Britney’s] “I’m a Slave for You.” So it is an incredible show.

All the fans are so happy because they get to see their favorite artist impersonating someone. And one connection that me and Vanjie have is that we’re obsessed with Rihanna — obsessed — so we always use a lot of her references. Even for All Stars, I actually designed [Vanjie’s] merch and it was all inspired in some little bit like Rihanna’s stuff because we’re both obsessed. But then that look, when she came out to that, I was like, “Whoa!” I needed to have that moment to photograph because she’s just breathtaking. I remember we posted a photo and then Rihanna liked it because she follows her, and we were so fanning out for it.

MW: I see that you’ve shot the Met Gala. Have you shot Rihanna at the Met Gala?

OVANDO: No, but we did meet. Yeah, we smoked. I took a hit on her joint, let’s put it that way. And I was mesmerized by her beauty. I was in an after-party. I was sitting with Madonna — that’s the night I met Madonna for the first time. I was sitting where she was sitting and at the next table was Rihanna. And I see her, and I just got starstruck, which rarely happens. And she did a shot. She looked at me, and then her friend passed her the joint, and she looked at me, took a hit and did this. [Gesturing “Want some?” with the joint.] I immediately took a hit. We didn’t say a word, I just took a hit and “All right, thank you.” It’s like, “I love your look tonight, you look great.” And that’s it. We never really talked, but definitely a dream of mine would be to shoot her, not just a paparazzi shot, but work with her. And Yusef does her hair. He’s a good friend of mine. I feel like it will happen at one point. For me she’s everything.

MW: We’ve put it out there. There’s one particular shot in the book that really struck me, it captures a moment of being candid, but seeming posed, though it’s definitely spontaneous. I think it’s Sahara Davenport in the Parties section of the book.

OVANDO: Ohhhh, yeah.

MW: You talked about the keys to shooting behind the scenes or at a party, blending in, not letting people know where you are.

OVANDO: So the Party chapter of my book, I really dug into all my archives, and I just wanted to, in a very subtle way, do a tribute to all of the queens that are no longer with us, especially Sahara. Sahara was a friend of mine here in New York, so we knew each other. I knew her when she was on Drag Race, that was when she was with Manila, and they used to come to all the parties that Brandon Voss used to do, and I was the photographer.

That candid shot is one of my favorites, and I don’t think I ever used it anywhere. Then when I was really digging in, because I wanted to have a tribute to her, to Jiggly, to The Vivienne, and I just didn’t want to put in your face, “Dedicated to,” because I’m not trying to make anything of it, it’s just like my tribute to have them in it. Because I did get to meet them, I did get to photograph them, mostly in parties. We never really got to do a full-on shoot or anything like that. But I do remember that photo of Sahara, I remember Amanda Lepore was right there, which is another of my closest friends. And I remember that she turned around, and boom, that photo happened, and I’m glad. It’s such a beautiful moment. You can see how sweet and nice she was.

MW: When you open into the Party section, there’s a spread of Jiggly, and it is a really touching photo of her at a party, just not being aware of the camera.

OVANDO: I remember that shot. It was this party called Westway here in New York. And that’s the night that I met her and she was performing and I just had my camera. Another thing that is a secret of mine is that most of those party scenes that you see, I’ll always use a small point-and-shoot camera because I realized that when you have a big camera, they tend to freeze, intimidate people. It becomes more personal to have a little camera that feels a little bit more like a friend taking a photo of a friend. But I remember that night, and that’s the first time I ever saw her perform. I don’t exactly know if it was around her season, I think it was after, and she was just dancing and performing.

I had featured her in the first book, one that she’s doing a full split. But when I was going through all my archives, I found this one, and I’m like, “Oh my God, this is such a cute photo.” And that’s how it happened. A very interesting fact about this whole book in general is that Alex Kenneke, the guy who designed the book, I met him through Willy Chavarria, the designer. And he’s done a lot of fashion books, and he’s never seen the show. He doesn’t know who they are. He just really went visually. When you look at the book, there’s a flow between images that has nothing to do [with] who is who, nothing. And then one of my favorite parts of the book is towards the end, when there’s a photo of Jiggly that she’s doing the peace sign, and then next to her is Angeria and Gottmik doing the same thing. I was like, “Wow.” It just has a flow. There was one photo where he put Sasha as Madonna and then Derrick as Britney next to each other in The Shows. I really like the way that his brain thought without really knowing who they were.

MW: So I want to take you back, if you don’t mind, to a happy gay time — August 17, 2010, to be exact — to “Ice Cream Truck.”

OVANDO: [Laughs.] You know about this?

MW: Oh my God, do I know about this? In fact, I was discussing “Ice Cream Truck,” because I was telling a friend about this interview, and he and my husband, we all agreed that that’s an iconic video. Things came together on that. For one thing, it eroticized masculinity in a way that really hit me personally. So who cast that video?

OVANDO: Oh, my God. So, I’ll tell you the whole story. Actually, it’s really funny how that happened, just because I had been working with Cazwell doing nightlife and I did, prior to “Ice Cream Truck,” another video with him and Amanda Lepore called “Get Into It.” And that was the first video. It came out after “Ice Cream Truck” but we shot it before.

And then one afternoon he’s like, “Hey, I have this song, it’s going to be in a movie” — I don’t remember what movie — “and I feel like I should do a visual or video for it, and do you think you want to do it?” And I’m like, “Yes.” And then I heard the song, and then at that time I just had seen a video, “(Shake Your) Money Maker.” I think it’s Pharrell with someone else [Ludacris]. And I saw all the pop of colors, all these beautiful women dancing in it. And I’m like, “What would it be for us to objectify men the way that this artist objectifies women?” You know what I mean? Make it something sexual but not too in your face. And that was my whole idea.

So literally, we went to Cazwell’s apartment in the East Village. I brought different colors of paper. Just to remind, I am self-taught in photography. Video, I’ve never done that. This whole different thing of lighting and everything — I’m better now. But that time, I think it was light bulbs from Home Depot that I used. And then these are the go-go boys that were dancing the parties that we were working at. So I literally just grabbed them and I’m like, “Hey, will you eat some ice cream while you dance for me?” Because they’re great dancers.

And without really thinking about it, everyone was Latin. Because there were all these boys that came out. I think we have a white kid in it, but it was just like, we just started and then the magic came in. I edited it in one afternoon. I showed Cazwell, and Cazwell loved it. We put it on YouTube — early days of YouTube — and then the next day we couldn’t believe what it did, to the point that, if I’m being honest, I felt embarrassed for me, for my work because I felt like it was so poorly done. You know what I mean? I could have done a better job if I knew it was going to be like that. But we came out and then we hit a million views and we were like, “What?!” So then, you know what we did with Cazwell? We got a tattoo of ice cream. Me and Cazwell. So he has it on his forearm, I have it here. [Shows a tattoo on his arm of a blazing ice cream bar.] It’s the same, mine has the red thing, but it’s the same thing, just to celebrate that.

MW: One last question.

OVANDO: Ask away.

MW: What books do you have on your coffee table?

OVANDO: Oh, my God. I’m right in front of them. My background is architecture, so I have a lot of architecture books. Oscar Niemeyer book. He’s an architect, a Brazilian architect. I have Warhol, Polaroids. Avedon, which is like the master for me in fashion. Herb Ritts. Amanda Lepore, Doll Parts. David LaChapelle, who was a huge influence for me growing up. That’s pretty much it, just a lot of fashion books. It’s always coffee table books. And my dream was to have one of those, and now I have three. Well, I mean, I have more, but it’s just, those are my three main ones.

I worked for World of Wonder, I did a book for the Vegas show. There’s a book for it. I’ve done a lot of tour books for the tour. There’s other ones I want to get out. They’re more about my work in general, not just the drag world.

But I can tell you, my dream book is one that I have about nightlife photography that I’ve done, and that’s how everything started. But for legal reasons, there’s a lot of work to be done with it because you need to have everyone to sign a release form saying that they’re okay with it. But just imagine a queer photographer — I have a lot of nudity, a lot of drugs, and everything nightlife the way that it’s supposed to be. But then there’s photos of a supermodel walking a Paris show. So this is how my world would be, because it’s all what I lived, but it was really hard for the supermodel to say yes, to be next to a guy with his dick out. But it’s not impossible. That’s my dream book. I hope it will happen one day.

But I think doing Dolls is so meaningful. And I want people to remember me when I’m gone, many years, that those books were part of a moment in history for our queer world, our queer life.

The Dolls Volume III and other Marco Ovando books and prints can be found at marcovando.com.

For information about RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq the World Tour, visit vossevents.com.

See more stunning photos from the book below.

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