This volume contains papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on Photons and Local Probes. The workshop had two predecessors. The first was the NATO ARW on Near Field Optics, held in October 1992 at Arc et Senans and was organized by Daniel Courjon and Dieter Pohl. The other predecessor was a workshop on Photons and Scanning Probe Microscopies held at the University of Konstanz in July 1992. The workshop on Photons and Local Probes was held at the Loechnerhaus on the Reichenau Island at the Lake of Constance, from September 11 to 17, 1994. The Reichenau Island was an important place in Europe in the middle age. Even the tomb of one of the carolingian emperors, Charles the Fat, is located there. At this workshop more than 60 scientists from Europe and the United States met to communicate their latest results in the field of local probes in combination with optical techniques. In eight sessions 31 talks as well as 9 posters were presented. Among those 31 publications were submitted for publication in the NATO proceedings. They were accepted after a strict, but constructive refereeing process.