Photos Quitting

I recently replaced my MacBook Pro. On the previous one, which I used for two years, I constantly utilised the Photos app to download my camera photos and do editing. I never experienced any problems. With the new one, I downloaded my first 400-plus photos from my camera into an album I created in the Photos app. When I then tried to open the photos to do some editing, the album disappeared and the app immediately quit. An unintelligible and highly technical report appeared to explain what had happened. I am no computer geek so it meant absolutely nothing to me. Every time I attempted to try again, the same thing happened. I switched off the laptop, and re-started it in safe mode. Exactly the same thing happened. The photos are still in the album, but I cannot open them and edit them. I am at a loss. Can anyone offer some simple and intelligible advice? I may have to ask you explain some of the terminology, as I was born many decades BC.