After iOS 5 update can't open Photos.app
Symptoms of what happens when you attempt to open the iOS Photos app would be helpful in troubleshooting this issue. If it opens and then immediately closes, it's crashing. If you've tried an actual restore of the OS, the only way that app will continue to crash is if you continue to restore from the backup, which will preserve the problem. Restore the unit, decline restoring from the backup, and test further.