The Blues Foundation honored 17 individuals and organizations with its 2012 Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award during a recognition brunch Saturday, February 4, 2012, in Memphis, Tennessee. Each year, The Blues Foundation presents the KBA Awards to individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to blues music.

When the Bites Blues Club opened in Riga, Latvia in 2001, it brought American blues men and women to perform twice a month. Sitting in the first row, with a small pocket camera was Aigars Lapsa. Taken by the show of the late Lil’ Dave Thompson, Aigars took his first blues pictures and vowed to never miss a show at the club. Since then, Aigars has been on a personal journey to photograph live blues performances at festivals and shows around the world. In 2004, he and his wife Zeltite traveled to Jazz Fest and the Chicago Blues Festival to record images for the Latvian press. Since then, he has taken pictures at over 60 festivals around the world. In 2006, he launched his website where his work has been seen by thousands of blues fans and industry professionals. He can often be seen giving packets of his stunning pictures to the subject performer. His photographs have been featured in every major blues publication around the world: Blues Revue, Big City Blues, Blues News (Germany), Blues News (Norway), Twoj Blues (Poland), and many others, as well on blues CD covers and inserts. His photos have been exhibited in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Lithuania, and Latvia. In 2009, his works were included in the Epson Roots and Fruits collection, which is the first traveling photography exhibit available in the Baltics, that is solely dedicated to blues and jazz.