Like a headless chicken

I am hopelessly conflicted about the faceless nude portrait:


I love images like that. Really.

Whereas, while I admire the technical skill involved in this next one, the framing strikes me as being too deliberately contrived to hide the face(s). It feels like a badly-cropped photo rather than a single, complete image:


The web is full of what I think of as failed exhibitionists -- chaps like this:


Which is not to deny a brilliant Antiquarian tradition:


When I was growing up, photos of Classical sculptures were far and away my easiest access to the naked male body, so I remain fond of images like this:


And I'm a huge fan of hyper-real close-ups:


And the "waistband pull-back" is a particular favourite:


I could spend all day looking at these:


And pants don't need to be involved, either:


But that's taken us a long way away from the faceless nude, which was the point of this post when I started it.


So as a challenge to my own prejudice I thought I'd try to collect together a range of faceless nudes that, while preserving the exhibitionist's anonymity, work just as well as porno portraits:


And with this one chap I hit paydirt.


In a photostream of a couple of thousand shots of his naked body, he has not once revealed his face.


While some of his photos are a bit forced, the majority are utterly brilliant.


Like this final image, a truly striking headless nude:


See? Completely conflicted.

Although not about him, obviously.