Hummingbirds are the only birds capable of flying backwards; their suspended motion mirrors the process of grief, moving into the past while still held in the present. A few years ago, I left my home country, Costa Rica, finding my own migratory route across the ocean. During that time, my father passed away from a neurodegenerative disease that slowly took his movement and his voice.

When he was well, my father spent his days tending to the flowers in our garden and caring for a hummingbird that visited the red feeder he placed. After his death, my mother told me the hummingbird continued appearing whenever she walked through the garden. She explained that, in Costa Rican folk belief, hummingbirds carry the souls of the dead and return to greet those they love.

Glimmers, Feathers and Staring Skies explores the hummingbird as a migratory body moving between science and myth, the earthly and the celestial. Engaging personal archives alongside colonial and ornithological materials, the project considers how photography has attempted to capture and classify a fleeting body. It opens alternative ways of experiencing grief, becoming a means to reconnect with my father by reimagining his still body through the language of flight.