Hey Phil,
If you have an Android phone you may be in luck. Please check your google account if they were automatically backed up by google to the cloud. I don't really know how it happened or how I accidentally accessed it but at some point in the past I was forced to spend hours deleting useless (to me) work photos of my already turned in paperwork (about 1700 total) I did not know were there. Worth looking into. Good Luck!