How to recover a photo from a Contact Poster? (iOS 26/macOS 26)

Dear community, I am facing the following problem.

I need to recover a very important photo and at the moment the photo is set as the Poster of a contact (I've set this photo as a Poster in the past).

I am sure the photo is still saved somewhere, given that if I try to edit the Poster (Contacts -> Name Surname -> Edit -> Edit [below the poster]), I have multiple times the same poster appearing in "Recents", so there is some memory of when I was setting the photo as Poster.

Additionally, if I try to edit the Poster, I can resize it, and so I am sure the original, not cropped, photo (compressed, maybe) is somewhere.

How can i recover the photo (no screenshots)?

Thank you for any help!

My devices:

• iPhone (iOS 26)

• MacbookAir M3 (macOS 26)

PS: I am almost sure I did not delete the photo in the Photos app, but can't find the photo anywhere.