'Time' Looks Back at Photo Series of Porn Stars as Virgin Mary

LOS ANGELES—In 2002, artist Nika Nesgoda lit upon the idea of casting adult stars as the Virgin Mary in a series of Cibachrome photographs inspired by well-known paintings of the biblical figure. One of those stars happened to be a young Stormy Daniels (who at the time was going by "Stormy Waters," interestingly), and in light of her current domination of the cultural landscape, Time magazine was compeled to investigate how she wound up in such a seemingly apropos-of-the-moment portrait (modeled after Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi's 1333 painting The Annunciation) all those years ago. As Nesgoda explained to Time of the project, titled Virgin, "The models in my pictures are both marginalized and glorified. Like the Virgin, they are untouchable and misunderstood." Of Daniels' portrait in particular, titled Annuntiatio, she commented, "Stormy's eyes carry a lot of depth, which was perfect for this image. I was struck by the timelessness of her beauty. She really looked like she could have stepped out of the 14th century." Other adult performers Nesgoda used as subjects—the majority of whom have long since moved on from the industry—included Kylie Ireland, Nikita Denise, Tera Patrick, Hannah Harper, Cherry Rain, India, Lacey Duvalle, Jassie, Inari Vachs, Carmen Luvana, Dee, Brittany Andrews, Kianna and Devon. Read Time's story about Virgin here, and see the complete series of photographs here. Pictured: Tera Patrick and Hannah Harper in Nika Nesgoda's Ad Visitatio, based upon Fra Angelico's The Annunciation of Cortona.