I've a different idea. Rather than try to recover old photons that left earth long ago, can recover and collate the remnants of these photons. This might be possible if these photons left a holographic imprint on matter which is still present – buildings, old trees, rock formations. I envision that in the future there will be a field of "photonic archaeology" where scientists will reconstruct past images from these trace holographic signatures. Same thing could theoretically be done for acoustics.