Having a photographic memory allows immediate access to information stored in the memory. The person with a photographic memory can recall any information from any book he has read or page he has seen. Each page can be viewed on the screen of his mind as if it were a snapshot.

. One famous case was S., described by the Russian psychologist A.R. Luria. Among other things S. had an exceptional ability to retain things long after he'd originally memorized them. Once he was read the first four lines of Dante's The Divine Comedy in Italian, a language he did not understand. He was immediately able to recite the entire passage--and more impressively, he could still do so on command 15 years later, with no advance warning

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Tant' è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai,
dirò de l'altre cose ch'i' v'ho scorte.

Io non so ben ridir com' i' v'intrai,
tant' era pien di sonno a quel punto
che la verace via abbandonai.

Ma poi ch'i' fui al piè d'un colle giunto,
là dove terminava quella valle
che m'avea di paura il cor compunto,

I have a friend who looked at my switch card for 60 seconds in a
nightclub whilst drunk. A few months later he sent me a letter with
the 19 digit number and 9 digit card number at the top. It was
perfectly copied.