What is the best way to host a site with many images without it being too slow?

First, I would suggest you remove the images to see if the website loads considerably fast. After that’s done, install “Autoptimize” and enable lazy load images(You can use any lazy loading plugin but Autoptimize works perfect for me due to the wide options) and then use webp images(Great compression but still really good quality). Webp Express is a free plugin to get webp images.

Cheers