Image transcription for the visually impaired:
[ A pale horse rears upwards. It has a cream-colored mane and is outfitted in highly ornamented riding gear in black, orange, and green. The horse’s head is flung back dramatically, it’s mouth grimacing against the bit in it’s mouth, it’s dirty yellow teeth bared. The bottom half of the horse is obscured by a tight-pressed crowd of casually-dressed people, their hands reaching towards the panicking animal, creating a sunburst-like effect, or perhaps like the foam of a crashing wave. It’s long mane flies wildly in the breeze as it emerges from the sea of people around it. The sun beats down harshly in the foreground and most people in the crowd are wearing short sleeves that reveal suntanned arms, sunglasses and hats can be spotted in the crowd, in the very front people seem oblivious to the panicking animal, creating a sense of unease about how the next few moments will unfold. In the background, the tightly-packed crowd is cast in deep shade, pressed against a dirty and mildewed stucco wall, creating a pleasing contrast to the brilliant white form of the horse but also creates a sense of claustrophobia because it is not immediately apparent where people would escape to if the situation is not handled correctly. Barely visible to one side is a formally-pressed man in a black suit with a traditional riding helmet, he does not seem panicked. You can also barely see that the ride on the horse’s back has not fallen off, their foot is still in the stirrup, suggesting this is all a part of some elaborate show and no one is in actual danger after all. ]
A couple of things that I notice by studying the image. One, there’s a rider mounted in the saddle. You can see the rider’s knee, and black boots in the stirrups. This isn’t an out-of-control animal. Also, the photo was taken using a long telephoto lens, which creates a very compressed depth of field. The crowd is not so tightly-packed, nor the wall behind nearly so close, as it would appear in person. It would feel a lot more open. The obscuration of the rider and the compressed depth of field combine to give an impression of a panicked horse in a close-packed crowd, neither of which was probably true.
Pretty ironic that I gave what I thought was an exhaustive description only for someone to point out that I failed to spot something so obvious in hindsight.
Ah well, that’s the price of trying to be specific with descriptions, I could have just said “It’s a white horse and lots of people 's hands are up”.
I’ll append your observation to the text description.
I thought that the description was very apt, because you described the impression created by the photo, which is what the text description should convey.
The rider is actually Death atop his pale horse