( CNN ) A swarm of insects tends to startle us -- chaotic yet organized , fascinating and beautiful . Take it one step further . Instead of bees hovering around a tree , imagine cheese balls . Solo cups in the place of birds , glow sticks as locusts . What seems like a figment of a wild imagination becomes reality in Thomas Jackson 's `` Emergent Behavior '' series . Jackson grew up in Rhode Island and worked in publishing in New York for 13 years , ultimately landing his dream gig as an editor with Forbes magazine . But somewhere along the way , he picked up a camera . He found photography `` effortlessly fulfilling '' compared to the frequent challenges of writing . So he dove in , lens first . After a charming series featuring a robot , he struck a cadence in creating `` swarms '' with inanimate objects such as Post-it notes and plastic plates . `` I started creating these whimsical , fantastic scenarios in which the environment is exploiting us , '' Jackson explained . That 's what initially catches the eye -- the uncanny . The bizarre gathering in the behavior of insects or birds , made up of something that should n't be there . At first , he relied on digital enhancements to polish his illusions . But as the series evolved , he relied less on editing and more on the installations themselves . More than half of Jackson 's `` Emergent Behavior '' series is digitally untouched . How Jackson gets a tubful of cheese balls to hang purposefully around the trunk of a tree seems nonsensical . He only hints at the mechanics . It 's just `` wires , '' he said , casually , not revealing enough evidence to ruin the magic . Social media . Follow @ CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography . `` But if you look close enough , it will reveal all of its secrets . '' He spends about a day building the installations , and he usually shoots his photos at dusk . The photo of the pink Solo cups was shot against mountainous terrain in Wyoming . The cups , already at odds with nature , look as though they are a flock of birds flying along the rocks . Jackson seemingly casts a magic spell of manic movement , creating what an Internet commentator calls `` a frat party being sucked into a black hole . '' The idea of a swarm -- be it insects or `` thank you '' bags -- fascinates Jackson . They are disconcerting and familiar at once , creating a conundrum that warrants a closer look . `` Maybe because they fly in the face of how we see the world , '' he said . Thomas Jackson is a photographer based in Brooklyn , New York . You can follow him on Instagram .
Thomas Jackson has staged everyday objects to look like swarms in nature . Among the items used : Solo cups , Post-it notes , cheese balls and plastic plates .