The photographs in Joel Sternfeld's book "Walking the High Line" renewed thoughts about how quickly vegetation reclaims abandoned ground. I witnessed this firsthand during the years I lived in North Carolina. I spent four weeks there in August photographing kudzu; an aggressive Japanese vine that can grow up to a foot a day. Although I struggled to prevent the photogenic plant from transforming the image into zoomorphic topiary, the more successful images place the kudzu in context, threatening to devour roadways, power lines, and other man-made structures.