An optical memory (100) in which data is stored in an optical data layer (190) capable of selectively altering light such as by changeable transmissivity or polarization. The data is illuminated by controllable light sources (330) and an array of multi-surface imaging lenslets (210) project the image onto a common array of light sensors (270). Data is organized into a plurality of regions or patches (called pages) in which each page contains a field of data spots that encode multiple states or levels of data by the amount of transmissivity or polarization of that spot.