ok, colour reproduction can mean different things to different people. a few things you may want to consider i think:
panel technology - IPS panels will generally give you the best all round performance for this kind of use and are the technology of choice for most high end colour critical displays and enthusiasts. They will offer you the widest viewing angles and are free of some of the problems with TN Film and VA panels which might prove annoying for photo work.
Colour space - this is the thing which i cant really answer for you. if you're working with photos then some people want to work with an extended gamut including the popular AdobeRGB gamut. it really depends on the preference of the user and camera etc, but if you're unsure then i'm guessing it's probably just using standard gamut (sRGB) as most things do. if thats the case then you'd be better with a standard gamut screen i think to avoid complications with colour management etc. if on the other hand you discovered the images were being taken in an extended colour space and you wanted to be able to work with that on the screen, then you'd need a wide gamut display
Calibration - if you can, you will probably want to try and calibrate the screen reliably to return you the best set up, and also allow you to match the output to other devices like the camera, printer etc. a lower cost colorimeter would be worth a look if you can include within your budget. something like the X-rite i1 Display 2 would do the trick i think for your uses without being overly expensive (i'll ignore some very technical points here for the sake of keeping this simple)
The Dell U2412M might be a good bet, or perhaps some of the 23" models which are around like the NEC EA232WMi, LG IPS231P etc. all IPS standard gamut models by the way and well within the price bracket.