How a brain injury led one man to rediscover his love of gardening 

Combining gardening with photography is a lifeline for Samuel Booth, who suffered a brain injury and lives with chronic pain

If you met Sam toiling in the gardens of Yorkshire’s Harewood House, you’d see a smiling man, confident, capable and hardworking. 

Seemingly fit and active and helping to tend to a world-class garden, Sam appears to have life sorted. But behind the veneer he has a secret disability – constant, life-altering pain, the consequence of a brain injury he suffered when working as a community sports coach in south Yorkshire.

“The best way to describe it is a needle jabbing my eye from the inside and a flare up of pain from the right side of my face and head to my neck,” he said.

© Sam Booth

Sam recently enjoyed photographing RHS Garden Harlow Carr's Glow event

“Any movement to my right side that I don’t expect makes the pain so severe that I cannot function and it is agony for me. I have been through years of treatments and sadly not had any long lasting pain relief, so I had to find a way to live with this pain.”

The fact that Sam’s disability is hidden only adds to his suffering – he works hard to keep up a pretence, conscious of the fact that many people can’t see a problem, so don’t realise it’s there.

What appeared to be an innocuous injury, bumping heads with another coach during a training session, had a huge impact on his life.

Plans to complete a PhD in sports studies were put on hold while he concentrated on his health. Initially he searched for pain relief before accepting he would have to live with his symptoms for the rest of his life, and find a way to manage the pain.

© Sam Booth

Sam struggled to remember the names of plants so built up an impressive portfolio of images, including this Origanum ‘Buckland’, to help him in the garden

He found comfort in gardening, rediscovering a fondness for a hobby he first enjoyed as a small boy in the company of his grandfather.

In 2016, he began volunteering at Harewood House in Yorkshire, which is surrounded by a historic garden with acres of landscaped parkland designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown in the 18^th Century.

The first coronavirus lockdown in 2020 provided an opportunity to spend more time helping in the gardens as staff were furloughed and many volunteers stayed at home, shielding from the disease.

© Sam Booth

Sam's photographs capture the detail of the Meconopsis and Iris

© Sam Booth

It gave him a chance to work side-by-side with the head gardener and advance his knowledge of horticulture and practical gardening techniques. 

“I think the term mindfulness is something I haven’t really understood, but seem to have experienced when I am exploring the gardens as well as when I am gardening. It’s a feeling that is hard to explain, like when I am taking photographs.

I am present in the moment and my troubles or pain sometimes seem to vanish for a short time.

It was while trying to learn all he could about horticulture that he encountered another problem caused by his injury, but one which has set him off on a new path of discovery.

© Sam Booth

A Galanthus (snowdrop) ready to burst into flower at RHS Harlow Carr

Sam struggled to remember the names of plants, something many gardeners can probably understand, but a major hindrance for someone who wants to take their hobby further.

To aid his memory, Sam started taking photographs and compiled an large portfolio of images which now runs to more than 1,000 photographs.

He finds a stillness in capturing an image, a moment in time in which he can focus on the whole frame, pushing the pain from his mind.

With the support of his partner, he has enrolled on a photography course and is working towards a Master of Fine Art in photography.

He has recently moved nearer to RHS Garden Harlow Carr, North Yorkshire, and the gardens there are the focus of most of his photography.

© Sam Booth

Sam's photographs of fungi around RHS Harlow Carr, including this Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric), prompted a renewed interest in fungi

Sam is currently compiling a colour pain diary in which he pictures something that reflects how he is feeling, and naturally many of these are images of plants and flowers.

“One day I hope to exhibit my work, the aim for the qualification is to produce a photobook which will include my pain colour diary and my story with both images and texts.

“It is quite a cathartic thing to write about, an emotional roller-coaster and I hope it will make interesting reading when it is finished.”