In early March, several hundred flocked to the Soho Photo Gallery, a cooperatively run gallery in Tribeca, for the opening of the Tenth Annual National Krappy Kamera Contest and Show.

It came down to two men. There was Mate—just one word like Madonna or Prince or Pelé—a German known for his technical precision. Dressed in a t-shirt and blazer, he appeared calm, collected, with a scraggly brown beard covering his long face. Facing off against him was Dosa Kim, who’d traveled all the way from Atlanta for the competition to emerge as the crowd favorite.