Selecting a range of images

It doesn't work in icon view because the definition is undefined.

When I click on the second icon, should it select everything in an imaginary rectangle between the two points?

Or everything alphabetically? chronologically? between the first and last item?

For comparison check how Photos.app deals with range selection - select one photo, shift-click another... every photo taken between the two is selected, not based on a simple rectangle, which generally makes sense for photos (and might be the solution you're looking for), but the Finder is dealing with far more generic file types where this doesn't make as much sense.

Even if you opt for a virtual rectangle, what about when you don't have the icons locked to a grid? Inevitably that means some icons are partially within the rectangle... should they be selected or not? Maybe you want the Finder to do a pixel comparison to see where the majority of the pixels in the icon are inside or outside of the rectangle?

Shift-selection works in list view because the outcome is well defined and predictable. Less so in icon view.

Ultimately, the Finder is not a photo management tool and your use case doesn't necessarily apply in the larger world.

I don't think it's possible in icon view, try a different view. You can view larger images in the Preview pane of Finder.

You can also use command-shift to select non-contiguous images.

Why not add images to a selection by holding down either the command, or shift key and then selecting random images in icon mode? There is no selecting the first image in a row of icons, and then selecting the last image and having the selection fill in the other icons.

I thought it was there for OS Lion or such. It was working on my older 2012 Non Retina. Then when I ended up with '15 with Mojave I noticed it wouldn't work. I sure wish they'd bring it back. It's a very useful way of sorting.

That seemed to have disappeared with the advent of the Arrange options in Finder. As Camelot stated, with an Arrangement set, the ordering is kind of suspect, so what exactly you'd get would end up randomly defined depending on your Arrangement and Sort. You'd get different results which Apple tends to abhor.

You can shift-drag to expand your selection. If you are visually processing a window full of icons, you can hold down shift and select the groups of ones you want, then scroll and repeat.

Another way you could achieve your goal is to select the first in your range, shift-select the last in you range, then switch to list view. Shift click the first selected file so that the selection expands from last to first.

Shift-clicking does not work in Icon View.

You have to drag out a selection rectangle.

As mentioned, shift-click works in other views.

In one of the older OS X releases, one could click the beginning and ending icon in a row of images and select all images in that row. Apple, in their haste to impose their design theology on us tend to stomp out the useful features of the past that users have grown accustomed to as efficiencies.

It really doesn't matter whether you understand or why it doesn't work.

It does not work.

Apple dropped it.

We cannot offer anything to alter the current behavior.

All we can offer is alternatives.