In response to the first video, I have to agree with that sentiment to a point. I've always found, for instance, box cameras to be really interesting. Because of this image in my head of Edwardians on vacation, pointing little black boxes at things they liked, pressing a button, and the little black box makes a two dimensional copy of the thing for them to keep. But for some reason this mind-image only works for me when the camera is abstract in the extreme, a literal magic box that copies things people like. Somehow when the box becomes something more intricate, it loses a lot of that charm and mystique. When it becomes an actual camera, with identifiable features like a lens and a viewfinder, and controls that let the person be a photographer, most of that "magic" evaporates. But I still get the idea of photography being about making copies of things, rather than being about processes, craft, and visions.
In response to the rest, Moriyama sits in a rather strange spot in my mind. I do rather like his photographs, and I do rather like his concepts, but I also feel like he is one of those photographers who got "lucky" by getting in on the ground floor so to speak. That there are others who can do what he does, and do it better, but won't be recognized because they were either born too late or just picked up a camera after he did. Moriyama is, in my mind, rather like an expert amateur, instead of the photography genius other people seem to see him as.
