$re = '/(<p>(?=<img\s.*?))(.*?)(</p>)/m';
$str = '<p><img src="/files/ffea8817-b5c4-406e-a7b2-3f6e52c69398.png" style="height:901px; width:797px" /></p>
<p><img src="/files/ffea8817-b5c4-406e-a7b2-3f6e52c69398.png" style="height:901px; width:797px" /></p>
<p><img src="/files/ffea8817-b5c4-406e-a7b2-3f6e52c69398.png" style="height:901px; width:797px" /></p>
<p><img src="/files/ffea8817-b5c4-406e-a7b2-3f6e52c69398.png" style="height:901px; width:797px" /></p><p><img src="/files/ffea8817-b5c4-406e-a7b2-3f6e52c69398.png" style="height:901px; width:797px" /></p>
';
$subst = "<figure class=\"image\">\2</figure>";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php