a::hover/after not for images

For some nice links on a website, i'm using the pseudo element a::hover and a::after:

a {
    position: relative;
    display: inline-block;
    outline: none;
    color: #404d5b;
    vertical-align: bottom;
    text-decoration: none;
    white-space: nowrap;
}

a::hover,
a::after {
    pointer-events: none;
    -webkit-backface-visibility: hidden;
    backface-visibility: hidden;
    -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
    font-smoothing: antialiased;
}

Now this is applied also to images when inserted into a link-element like this:

<a href="#"><img src="source.jpg" /></a>

How can I hide this styling for my images? I don't want them to have this background when hovering...