Lazy loading images in your react project optimizes your website and also makes it visually appealing to visitors.

We can achieve this in various ways, but I will only highlight two ways

APPROACH 1

The HTML image tag now accepts a loading attribute that takes in either the lazy attribute or the trigger attribute

The lazy attribute tells the browser to only load and download images currently on the browser's viewport and defer other images load and download to when the user scrolls to them.

The eager attribute tells the browser to load all images immediately.

For optimization purposes, adding the lazy attribute reduces build and browser load time.

<img loading='lazy' />

APPROACH 2
We will be using a third party react library to optimize image load and download.

The library is react-lazy-load-image-component

Run the command below to install this package to your react project.

npm install react-lazy-load-image-component

If you're building a large project where you will be using the img tag a lot, I will advise you create a reusable component.

I will name mine Image.jsx

Step 1: Import the react-lazy-load-image-component package to the file
Step 2: Import the lazy load effect you would like to use, iIwill be using blur here.
Step 3: Render the LazyLoadImage component in the file and pass in the needed props as illustrated below
Step 4: Save the file and preview the image

You have successfully optimized your project by implementing lazy image loading.

import { LazyLoadImage } from "react-lazy-load-image-component";
import "react-lazy-load-image-component/src/effects/blur.css";

export default function Image({src, styles}) {
  return (
    <>
      <LazyLoadImage
        alt={alt}
        className="gallery-img"
        effect="blur"
        src={src}
        width="100%"
        style={styles}
      />
    </>
  );
}

You can customize the effect to your taste, read more about the package here;

Let me know if this was helpful to you in the comment section