Imported photos in "photos"on my mac using catalina

It is easier to understand the way Photos is working, if we are seeing it as a relation database with different layers of abstraction. A predefined, basic view, and a user defined custom view.

• Everything you are seeing in the "Library" section and in "Media" is showing you the basic structure of the Photos Library, created automatically by Photos. The photo are appearing in different views like "Imports", "Panoramic", according to rules, specific for this album. These predefined albums are just like smart albums, based on all photos in your library. You cannot modify the albums in the "Library" section, unless you delete the photo completely from your library, as Mark explained.
• Consider this predefined "Library" as the basic structure of your Photos Library (according to Imports, Recents, All Photos, Days, People, Places, Media kind, etc, grouping the photos according to common criteria, that are typical for photos and will be needed by many users.
• Design and build your own thematic structure on top of it with folders, albums, and smart albums, titles, keywords, according to your own projects. Here is a user tip suggesting some design principles for our own library design: New to Photos? Some Considerations on How to Design your First Photos Library in Photos 5.0

For example, it is easy to build your own smart albums with all recent photos, that are not yet in any album. What is your system version? In macOS 10.11.2 Bug Sur you would do it like this:

• Create a new smart album with "File > New Smart album"
• Set the rule to "Date added > is in the last > 30 Days" (or any date range you want to check)
• Add a second rule "Album > Is Not > Any"
• Combine the two rules with "Match all".

This smart album will show you all photos added during the last 30 days, that have not yet been added to any album.

Framboise01 wrote:

what the is the difference between Iphoto and photos that I can no longer cancel imports?

The internal structure of Photos is a complete redesign from that of iPhoto, geared more toward the ability to sync across devices. Some of the new functions may look like old functions and act similarly, but not all, and not all old functions are carried forward.

The old iPhoto and Aperture library format stored its contents in different places determined at the time of import, visible to the user as Events. Photos and videos could be moved among Events and optionally made visible in Albums.

Photos uses a (conceptually) single storage location with databases to implement Views, Albums, and Folders. Events (the old separate storage areas) are not simulated; on migration, Event contents are added to the library and corresponding Albums are created to show their contents. Imported items go directly into the main library and are then visible in several views including Imports.

The "Imports" view is just showing you photos/videos in your library in the order they were added to the library. It is not a separate storage location, just a view of the library.

When you say you "filed" photos, do you mean you assigned them to albums? Albums also are not storage locations, just lists of photos of chosen photos stored elsewhere in the library. A given photo can be in zero, one, or many albums; a single copy is stored in the library (unless you force multiple copies to be imported).

If you delete a photo from any view, it is deleted from the library and can no longer be part of any view or album (except the special Recently Deleted album)..