In today's consumer society the way that advertisers reach their clients becomes more important for both, advertisers and consumers. On one hand the consumers are fashion-conscious, while on the other, advertisers wish to attract these fashion-conscious consumers to buy their products and services or to offer them new products/services. It is for this purpose that fashion and advertising photography are used: one for the "awareness" of the consumers, and the other to lure them to buy a certain product or service. This paper provides a theoretical insight in similarities and differences between these two types of applied photography. Theoretical part introduces the reader to the topic and explains basic concepts relating to fashion and advertising photography, along with their history, in order to explain basic differences between the two. Apart from the theoretical approach, the paper also contains a practical perspective. By participating in a process of making an advertising campaign and a fashion editorial, and by interviewing the main actors of the process, I was able to present in this paper the similarities and differences that can be observed throughout the entire process, but also the roots of these similarities/differences. As the paper emphasises, these roots can be perceived in similar methodologies used, and different primary purpose of the photography. Fashion photography aims at making a wholesome harmonious picture with which the consumer can identify himself/herself with or in which he/she wants to be, while advertising photography aims at bringing the product/service closer to the consumer and incite him/her to buy.