Virginity, and the kind of innocence and naïveté it symbolizes, may seem antithetical to our urban reality: Who wears white in this town, where nothing ever really stays clean? So, when we meet a genuine virgin in New York, it’s hard not to take a step back and wonder, Can it be?

The virgins in the portraits that follow range in age from 22 to 41, and the range in their reasons for abstaining from sex is similarly wide. They are waiting for love, or for marriage, or for God. All spoke of a stigma and with an unshakable conviction that they were doing the right thing.

Related:

• Archive: “Guides”
• Articles by Yael Kohen
• Table of Contents: April 30, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!