Two-photon correlations are discussed within the formalism of Hanbury-
Brown and Twiss interferometry and Bose-Einstein correlations. The tec
hnique is presented as a universal tool to study the properties of any
boson source - light sources such as stars, or photon and meson sourc
es in the early phase of heavy-ion collisions. The formalism is develo
ped starting from optics and quantum statistics and is finally adapted
to the dynamics of heavy-ion collisions. Emphasis is put on the exper
imental methods derived to display the interference between photons fr
om nuclear reactions. The influence of one-dimensional projections and
the detector response on the interpretation of the source properties
are discussed. The method is illustrated using experimental data, avai
lable only in the intermediate (several tens of A MeV) energy domain.
The observed interference signal is interpreted, guided by dynamical p
hase-space calculations, in terms of source size and reaction dynamics
. It is found that photons are emitted as brief light Bashes, the rela
tive intensity of which can be linked via model calculations to the in
compressibility modulus of nuclear matter. At ultrarelativistic energi
es, two-photon correlations are presented as a tool to observe the pha
se transition towards the quark-gluon plasma.