Pion and photon light-cone wave functions from the instanton vacuum

The leading-twist wave functions of the pion and the photon at a low normalization point are calculated in the effective low--energy theory derived from the instanton vacuum. The pion wave function is found to be close to the asymptotic one, consistent with the recent CLEO measurements. The photon wave function is non-zero at the endpoints. This different behavior is a consequence of the momentum dependence of the dynamical quark mass suggested by the instanton vacuum. We comment on the relation of meson wave functions and off-forward parton distributions in this model.