Is there a protein in the eye that gets kinked by photons and shipped down to the liver to get un-kinked?
The protein is called rhodopsin and the bit that gets kinked up is called retinol.   Normally when light hits it, it does trans to cis isomerization at the 11th carbon.  'kinks up' is a pretty apt way of describing it. 



I'm not familiar with the shipped down to the liver part, but I'm guessing that the photo reaction of the retinol with itself or the protein must occasionally make the rhodopsin-retinol complex unfunctional - perhaps by the double bonds cross linking to other atoms in the retinol or to the protein.  As I understood it the retinol just straightens out again.  This reference shows that in the presence of rhodopsin, 11-cis retinol will become all trans again normally. 

There should be enzymes in the liver that can recycle some messed up retinol configurations.  Its probably not the main route through your body. Retinol is stored in the liver from dietary intake, and then shipped via retinol binding proteins to the eye. So that is the organ which is the source of retinol in the human body (and probably most animals).  It should catch damaged retinols and refurbish them the same way it does those taken in via the diet.