I would love for photographic memory to exist, but I feel like I have to remain wary of that term until I see really solid evidence. It seems like a test for “photographic memory” should work with complex patterns of random dots (“photographically”), not just with images that are related to a topic of unusually intense, lifelong focus. (buildings, numbers, music, autobiographical events, etc.) Those kinds of memory abilities are extraordinary, but I think that more study is needed before coming to a firm conclusion about how they work. From what I’ve read, even full eidetic memory isn’t necessarily accurate, and as far as I know, no one has ever been able to pass that kind of “photographic” test.
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