HOW to find Photos - shot from iPhone 12promax - on MacBook Pro 2017??

As markwmsn says, different transfer methods put files in different places, so you may have to do a search.

If you know a filename, you can do a search with Spotlight or Finder or the app Find Any File ($6). You don't say what macOS you are using, and Spotlight searches Photos only on recent OSs. So to search for a filename of a picture in Photos in macOS 12 Monterey, for instance, you would need to be running Photos, and do the search there.

In Photos, you can use a Smart Album to search for " Camera Model Includes iPhone 14 " You can also look in Imports or in Recently Saved (if this is macOS 15)to see the pictures added most recently.

Let us know how it goes…

That depends. What action have you taken to get them to reach the MacBook Pro at all?

Are they linked by iCloud Photos?

Do you AirDrop them?

Do you attach the phone and Mac with a cable and import the photos with the Photos app?

Do you attach the phone and Mac with a cable and import the photos with the Image Capture app?

Some other method?

If you were relying on the My Photo Stream facility, that was shut down two years ago after much fanfare.