You can prevent images from loading but you would have to use scripting to remove the images from the page before they load. Hiding them does not do this. It simply prevents them from being displayed.
If you want some images removed but not all, apply a unique class to those images and have the Javascript remove them from the DOM before they are loaded. Otherwise, you can have all images stripped out.
Another popular technique swaps mobile-optimized versions for each image whenever a mobile device loads the page.
