Chuck, truncated

This undated torso shot of Chuck Howard is one of more than a few Lynes did that intentionally left the face and/or other key body parts out of the picture.  I don't think it was fear of identification or prosecution, but rather an artistic statement.  (Lynes made hundreds of frontal nudes at a time they were illegal to exhibit or distribute, but never publicly displayed or sold them.)  We also see this motif in the contemporaneous works of Minor White and to a lesser extent, Carl van Vechten.