Does “photographic memory” exist?

Question

I've been told that because I can remember shapes and objects well, and describe them in detail, I have a "photographic memory". However, I looked it up (briefly), and it seems scientific consensus is that there is no such thing - everyone can really do it. So, what is the consensus? Does it exist? Does everyone have it, or only certain people?

Answer 1

Scientific American article (by Alan Searleman, Professor of Psychology, St. Lawrence University)

In the scientific literature, the term eidetic imagery comes closest to what is popularly called photographic memory.

... a common visual image that we can all create from memory (such as an image of a bedroom) does not have the characteristics of most eidetic images, which almost always fade away involuntarily and part by part.

Unlike common visual images created from memory, most eidetic images last between about half a minute to several minutes only, and [...] once gone from view, rarely can an eidetic image ever be retrieved.

... besides often being sketchy on some details, it is not unusual for eidetikers to alter visual details and even to invent some that were never in the original. This suggests that eidetic images are certainly not photographic in nature but instead are reconstructed from memory and can be influenced like other memories (both visual and nonvisual) by cognitive biases and expectations.

The vast majority of the people who have been identified as possessing eidetic imagery are children. [...] With a few notable exceptions, however, most research has shown that virtually no adults seem to possess the ability to form eidetic images.

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I remember seing a documentary where people with extraordinary memories were featured. Amongst them was the autistic Stephen Wiltshire who, after a helicopter flight along the Thames, drew a large panorama of London's skyline with amazing detail.

(Image Source)