Can i recover photo files lost when i wiped out my hard-drive and  reinstalled mac os x?

Can i recover photo files lost when i wiped out my hard-drive and  reinstalled mac os x?  I know that when a computer is wiped cleaned that the info is still on the hard drive, how do I access it?  Can I pay someone to access it?  Long story short, everything was saved to my external hard drive except my photos, by mistake of course.

You have to stop using the drive immediately.  Completely stop.  Do not boot the computer from the drive.
File recovery software: Try using an application such as Data Rescue 3 - http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php or FileSalvage - http://subrosasoft.com, or one of the ones listed in the (old) link below. Some have free trial versions that let you see if the software will help before you decide to buy. You will also need a second hard drive equal to or larger in size than your first drive as a destination drive for recovered files.
http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/mac-recovery-software
It is critical that you do not use the computer or even turn it on until you have rescued your files. Files only have the directory reference to them removed when you empty the trash or otherwise delete them from a computer (unless you use secure erase, in which case they are gone forever or can only be potentially be recovered by very expensive means) and are still present on the computer. However, their space is marked as available to any other file creation done on the computer (even done by you booting the computer) and there is risk that your files will be overwritten by the computer.
Even if the above works, do not expect the results to be pretty or even 100% successful.  Files will often lose their names and you will have to re-name them one by one.

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