Hehe... yeah, I think I can relate to that feeling of excitement when a new photograph or a new piece of information is found.

I am not sure it is actually illegal to create images by using older photographs, but it definitely should be. At least the creator should mark his "work" in some way to make sure that it is clear it is a creation and not actually an authentic photograph. Sometimes it can be really tricky to tell what is real and what is not.