I'm new at this so forgive me if I say anything dumb.
@Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE made some good points. Are rows of uniform height acceptable, or is there some reason to use columns instead? Columns will always be awkwardly staggard at the bottom if the images above haven't loaded yet unless you get their dimensions first. Besides, if the order of results matters, it's much more natural to see the order if the rows are all aligned. Masonry approximates the proper order but it's still rather ambiguous.