I will highlight experimental results on two fronts, exploring (1) strongly-correlated lattice materials composed of microwave photons and (2) strongly-correlated bulk materials composed of optical photons. In collaboration with the Schuster Lab, we have dissipatively stabilized a Mott insulator of microwave photons in a lattice-microscope of capacitively coupled transmon qubits. I will describe the state-of-the-experimental-art, focusing in particular on thermalization dynamics and hole diffusion, plus prospects to integrate this platform with our recently demonstrated photon Chern insulator. In parallel, we have recently observed collisions between individual optical photons in a multi-mode Fabry-Perot cavity: I will describe these results and their connection to upcoming plans to investigate fractional quantum hall physics of cavity polaritons in a twisted cavity.