Delete a 'stack' of photo icons on desktop

It's probably easier to open a new finder window of the desktop, (~/Desktop), an manage them from there. That way you won't have the problem of icons overlapping when the desktop is over crowded. You can the sort by kind and see all the photos at the top or whatever.
⌘A Will select all.
⌘← Will delete the selected item.

By the way this will only work if your view options, (⌘J), for folders or the desktop are not set as Arrange by None.

Message was edited by: gumsie

Oh, one more thing. If you dragged them from iPhoto, they should be copies of what was in your iPhoto Library and therefore safe to delete. Before you empty the trash just open iPhoto again to double check they are still shown.

If you have a whole bunch of individual files that have been placed on top of each other visually, you need to select all of them. They are in no way "stacked" other than visually. Do this: in a clear space on the desktop, click and drag the mouse. You should see a light-colored rectangle, one corner tied to the click location and one tied to the mouse. Drag around and watch what happens when that rectangle touches a file on the desktop. (It becomes selected.)

Now, the easy solution to your problem is just drag a rectangle over the "stack" of files on the desktop to select them all, then drag them to the trash.