Yes, images do help in the search engine results and often get displayed as part of an image search, where Google gives you the options of images as your search. However, do make sure that the alt tags are done correctly, and that your link points to something you want to. If you want to fully optimize it add a description and a caption, it never hurts.
The thing to be aware of though, most of the time the images will rank as opposed to the page the image is on. So there is the other half of the coin. Images can always help. Just be careful of where you link it to. Hope this helps!