Check WhatsApp media visibility in your phone gallery settings
Open WhatsApp and go to the chat where the photo was sent
Tap the contact or group name
Open Media, links, and docs
Save the photo again to your device
Check your phone’s file manager in WhatsApp Images
Look in Internal Storage > WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Images
Check the Recently Deleted or Trash folder in your gallery app
Restore the photo from Google Photos or iCloud Photos if backed up
Restore a full WhatsApp backup from Google Drive or iCloud
Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp, then verify your number and restore the backup
Use a file recovery app if the photo was deleted from storage
Ask the sender to resend the photo if no backup exists