As biostud alludes to, it mostly depends on what you're editing photos for, and then secondly, what resolution (photos) you're talking about. But fundamentally more important than monitor resolution is its color
space and
gamut, and relative accuracy/stability. (That's especially true for editing photos to be printed anywhere that does a better job than your local chain drugstore, but even if people will be looking at them on different monitors, it can be helpful to you to know exactly what your own baseline is when you're editing, and for tweaking them for other devices with some semblance of accuracy and control.) Here's an
article that looks like a reasonable overview of the issues involved, though I just grabbed it from the top of a list of search hits and barely skimmed it. There may well be/probably are better general articles on the subject.
Frankly, if you're "just getting into it", I'd advise not buying a monitor specifically with photo editing in mind unless you can/will use it as a secondary monitor. If you end up basically just dicking around with your photos (and really, there's nothing wrong with that) and especially if you won't be printing a majority of them, it won't matter much what monitor you use as long as it has reasonable color reproduction and good contrast. And if you do end up really
staying "into it", there'll be time enough to spend big bucks on a
good IPS monitor that will, conversely, basically suck for gaming or watching videos with any amount of "action", since they tend to be slow and have high input lag.
PS: 4K resolution would really be pointless for photo editing, especially beginner hobbyist level editing, unless you're planning to do
extremely detailed, micro-level edits, or the photos would mostly be viewed on high resolution monitors and so you'd want to better see exactly what your audience will be seeing when they view them. Especially since you'd probably have to take out a second mortgage to buy a 4K monitor with good specs for the more important features, if such monitors even exist... (And I assume they must if you're willing to spend enough money, but they're far beyond anything I ever pay attention to...)
And last but by no means least, keep in mind that even a "good" IPS monitor is kinda useless without being calibrated, and re-calibrated with some regularity. So unless you're wiling to spend the money on the hardware/software to do that, that's another reason to hold off until you really start feeling held back by the capabilities of whatever monitor you use to start with.
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