I may have a photographic memory; but, as Norwegian philosopher Zapffe, whose work remains inaccessible to me since I have never attempted to learn the language of my Swedish ancestors, duly noted, this excessive consciousness is not something natural selection favors. My and Zapffe's intellectual hero, Schopenhauer, had stated that life depends on us not knowing it too well. Anyway, one of the consequences of this supposed photographic memory is that, throughout my life, I have had mastur-bat-ory access to an imagination which contains all the women of my heart's desire. I have literally short-circuited the reproductive process by Onanistically spilling the demon seeds down the drain where they can do no harm.
Where I don't have a photographic memory is in the realm of mathematics. Some concepts that I have been exposed to for over 3 decades I still like to review. Coming around full circle, these concepts are more familiar, but I do not memorize formulas, but prefer to rediscover relationships as I go along. For example, when looking for the roots of a polynomial equation, and I have to factor, I prefer "completing the square" rather than using the quadratic formula. I like to be able to come up with the quadratic formula by completing the square with the quadratic equation a*x^2 + b*x + c = 0 ...
This is why I prefer solitary autodidactic study because I allow myself to continually return to elementary and fundamental concepts, always reviewing such concepts when approaching exotic ideas.
So, with some things, like mathematics or programming, I do not have a photographic memory and am doomed to a lifetime of continually rediscovering and reviewing. You know how it is, one wakes up groggy, one is vulnerable to moods and psychological discomfort. I usually have to write things down ... even when reading from a textbook, if I don't write things down, my mind will wander to something else ...
Isn't the nature of memory strange though, when you think about it, since everything is a memory, even the present moment that passes now ... and then when the brain is dead, no more memories, no more Universe.