Geyer began her ongoing series of collages Constellations with black-and-white portraits—some photographs and some reproductions of paintings—of women whose salons were significant in shaping the culture and politics of their respective time periods, including both legendary women and lesserknown figures. Out of each portrait, Geyer hand-cut unique prismatic segments and then reintegrated the segments into the image, turning some of them 180 degrees, and leaving between them a small gap. The reconfigured portraits underscore how the stories, actions, and legacies of these important women and their salons are refracted and obscured and, at the same time, delineate a new kind of visibility and recognition.

The image that Geyer chose of A’Lelia Walker, for example, depicts a smiling woman who looks at the camera while hugging one knee to her chest in a casual recline. The daughter of the first female self-made millionaire in America, Madam C. J. Walker, A’Lelia was renowned for her philanthropy and social and political activism. Upon inheriting her mother’s wealth in the 1920s, A’Lelia created a salon called the Dark Tower, where key figures of the Harlem Renaissance gathered. At her Harlem home, a variety of individuals (including artists, writers, business people, and lawyers) came together in a secure space for self-expression and artistic development.

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