Photoproduction of two pions on nucleon and deuteron is studied for photon energies from threshold up to Eγ = 1.5 GeV. For the elementary operator an effective Lagrangean approach is used with resonance and Born contributions. The model parameters are fixed by resonance decay widths and multipole analyses of single pion photoproduction. A satisfactory description of total cross sections of two-pion production on the proton for various charge channels is achieved, except for π 0 π 0 production for which a significant underestimation is found near threshold. The operator then serves for the evaluation of this reaction on the deuteron in the impulse approximation. In addition, N N rescattering in the final state is taken into account, but πN and ππ rescatterings are neglected. Results are presented for total cross sections and target asymmetries.PACS numbers: 13.60.-r, 13.60. Le, 21.45.+v,