(cnn)a swarm of insects tends to startle uschaotic 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 eyethe uncanny the bizarre gathering in the behavior of insects or birds, made up of something that shouldn'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 swarmbe it insects or 'thank you' bagsfascinates 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
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 