Q: Hi our friend has an old email address on his old phone and the email account is now closed he needs to get his photos off and has a new email address how an he retrieve please

Even though the email account is closed the Apple ID is still valid. If he has forgotten the password see: If you forgot your Apple ID password - Apple Support

The following has instructions on how to change the email address that is used as his Apple ID: Change your Apple ID - Apple Support

I did and do understand that. You original post only indicated that his email account is no longer active. It didn't say that he has also forgotten the password for his Apple ID so I was  just guessing about that. The link I previously provided gives a number of options for a number of different situations -- does he know the answers to his security questions? That is one method in the link. If all else fails, see the following (last paragraph in the link):

If these steps didn't help you change your password, contact Apple Support.