Orgasmus

Photographs by Linda Troeller
Compiled by Marion Schneider 

In this volume, New York-based photographer Linda Troeller (born 1949) collaborates with scholar and artist Marion Schneider to discuss and portray women's feelings upon orgasm through personal narratives and photographs. The project involves 25 women of different ages, nationalities, and cultural and social backgrounds. Schneider posed the following questions to them: "What does the word orgasm mean to you?"
"Can you remember your first orgasm and show the feelings to the camera?"
"Can you remember your strongest orgasm and show the feelings to the camera?"

Troeller's portraits are juxtaposed with interviews with the participants. Boldly and tenderly countering the taboo associated with the topic, this frank and intimate examination of the female orgasm as told through the mouths of these diverse participants serves as a touchstone for women and men everywhere. This book continues the investigation into female sexuality begun by Troeller and Schneider's 1998 volume The Erotic Lives of Women, acclaimed in The New York Times Review of Books as "one of the gutsiest books of the decade."