tony draper,
If the files are .jpg, your easiest solution is to associate the .jpg and .jpeg with Internet Explorer. It will have not trouble opening the picutres. That will allow you to uninstall Photoshop, if you still wish to.
It soulds like Photoshop did not change the type of files the pictures were, just their association, in this case it said it would open all .jpg's and .jpeg's. When you removed Photoshop, the associations did not revert back to their previous viewer and that is why you could not open them after uninstalling Photoshop.
Take Care,
Richard