Alain Thunder understands that distance. As a singer, actor, model, and adult performer, he works in the space between what an audience sees and what it believes it knows. His work makes his sexuality public. His answers reveal the emotional conditions behind that visibility: attraction, confidence, chemistry, trust—and the frustration of trying to create passion when something essential is missing.

A man catches your eye. You linger over his mouth, the shape of his body, the suggestion of what might happen next. Then he says something that makes you want to stay. This issue of Willpower follows that curiosity.

Photographer Mark E. Hersh approaches male portraiture as more than an exercise in beauty. His work explores the tension, vulnerability, desire, humor, and trust that emerge when a photographer and subject build something emotionally honest together. From his early encounters with Palm Springs’ leather community to the complicated realities of erotic editorial work, Hersh reflects on storytelling, masculinity, body image, creative boundaries, censorship, and the fleeting mome

After decades behind the camera, photographer Jim Cox finds himself returning to the images that have always held his deepest attention: men, portraiture, vulnerability, sensuality, atmosphere, and the quiet emotional presence that exists between photographer and subject.