“I just don’t understand why a picture of a woman’s head/face needs to be blocked.”
Remember the brouhaha over the hemishe publication that edited hillary clinton out of a photo? I and a lot of other people agree with you, but many disagree. I cant explain their reasoning though.
Regarding these “images”, doesnt the midrash describe some rather “forbidden” images that shlomo hamelech had put on the walls of the beis hamikdash? I vaguely remember my sisters discussing this when they were in seminary and learned sefer melachim. Its been a while.