Kissing at the Roman Baths
I made a series of images of Roman Warriors kissing in the rain at the Roman Baths, as black and white photography. Although I intend these images in black and white, I know that some of you prefer full color photos, so I have included the source image in color as well. I used Stable Diffusion with SDXL to create the images.
I have been photographing gay men kissing since 2007. I will share some of those photographs taken in the past 15 years with those of you who know who I am, as a closed friends story, so you’ll understand the context and premise better.
My kiss series feature not just gay men but straight couples and friendly kisses with friends. It’s my way of visually demonstrating the idea that love is universal. My AI photography series is an extension of that long running series. Using AI solves some of the challenges in photography — it removes the need for model releases and/or people not wanting to appear in images a decade later. Since the men depicted are not actually real, it allowed me to express my intentions more freely.
These images depict gladiators and warriors having an intimate moment at the thermae. They’re realized as black and white photography, with Stable Diffusion with SDXL. Text prompts in Stable Diffusion txt2img, with JuggernautXL version 1.0 checkpoint, and SDXL Refiner using the expert_ensemble_refiner flow in Automatic1111 v 1.5.1. Post-upscaled in Topaz Gigapixel as a 4096x4096 image. Post-processed as black and white photography in Adobe Lightroom.
Photo 1
Steps: 50, Sampler: DPM++ SDE Karras, CFG scale: 5, Seed: 3834799507, Size: 1024x1024, Model hash: 9c27a604a3, Model: juggernautXL_version1, Refiner model: sd_xl_refiner_1.0, Refiner steps: 10, Version: v1.5.1
Photo 2
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Photo 6
Steps: 50, Sampler: DPM++ SDE Karras, CFG scale: 5, Seed: 1131625481, Size: 1024x1024, Model hash: 9c27a604a3, Model: juggernautXL_version1, Refiner model: sd_xl_refiner_1.0, Refiner steps: 10, Version: v1.5.1