Azopolymers represent a wide class of polymeric systems in which the azobenzene chromophores are either incorporated into the main chain or covalently attached to it as a part of side chain. Light with an appropriate wavelength induces cyclic trans-cis isomerization, which results in preferred orientation of the trans-isomers perpendicular to the light polarization. Most azopolymer materials directionally deform in the presence of various light polarizations. In this thesis, a study is presented for photoinduced deformations in glassy side-chain azopolymers under different irradiation patterns. In particular, the photodeformations are investigated under homogeneous irradiation with linearly and circularly polarized light, and under inhomogeneous irradiation with intensity and polarization interference patterns. It is proposed to explain these mechanical deformations using the orientation approach, which takes into account the reorientation of the chromophores. Due to the rigid attachment of the chromophores with the main chain, the backbone segments in side-chain azopolymers should reorient into the polarization plane, which is accompanied by appearance of light induced stress. To describe the time evolution of light induced stresses, the side-chain azopolymers are modeled as an ensemble of rigid segments in presence of the effective orientation potential. Implementing the stress in a viscoplastic material model of the finite element software ANSYS, it is shown that a square azopolymer post elongates along the polarization for the linearly polarized light and contracts along the propagation direction for the circularly polarized light. Also, the deformations in the elongated oriented colloids under intensity interference patterns are modeled and it is found that the formation of beads and wave-like structures are in accordance with the experiment. The orientation approach also reproduces the peculiar structures at the edges of thin azopolymer film under polarization interference patterns. Hence, the orientation approach correctly predicts local variations of the light induced stress in each illumination pattern for both initially isotropic and highly oriented materials. With this, it is proved that the orientation approach implements a self-sufficient and convincing mechanism to describe photoinduced deformation in azopolymer materials, which does not rely on the photo-fluidization concept. The viscoplastic material modeling, developed in this thesis, can be used to describe the inscription of intricate surface structures under complex interference patterns.