Photographer Shows Ingleside’s Past And Present By Capturing Small Businesses

A new photo project presents Ingleside’s Ocean Avenue 22 years apart.

Amateur photographer Jay Martin’s “Our Ocean Avenue — Then and Now” juxtaposes 10 small businesses across about 10 blocks of the neighborhood’s retail district. Each set of photos shows how the neighborhood has changed — and hasn’t — between 2003 and 2025. Taken together, a picture of an immigrant emerges.

“I've used the camera as a tool to really know where we've gone and migrated from just taking random pictures to more storytelling,” Martin said. “With the current political climate with Trump, I am trying to emphasize more diversity, equity, inclusion, type of stories with immigrants and as it turns out, a lot of the merchants on Ocean Avenue are immigrants.”

Martin, a technical writer who lives in Balboa Terrace, shared the photos with The Ingleside Light and posted them on his Instagram and Mission Local, where he is a contributor. He took the first set of photos in 2003 while taking a photography course at the University of California, Berkeley Extension. Earlier this year, took companion photos.

Of the 10 storefronts featured, four remain, more or less, the same: Linda’s Ocean Nails, Phở Hà Tiên, El Jalapeno Taqueria and a laundromat.

1944 Ocean Collective, a cannabis dispensary, is long gone. It’s under construction to become a branch of Little Panda Infant and Toddler Center. In Style by Carmen, a women’s fashion shop, at 1917 Ocean Ave. is now bustling indoor playground Little Oceanauts. El Mansoura International Market at 1720 Ocean Ave. is now the nonprofit Ocean Avenue Association’s temporary headquarters. Thorne Hat Shop at 1552 Ocean Ave. is now Cherry Blossom Bakery.

An auto service — either Sunset Garage or Gina’s Ocean Avenue Service Station — are both gone. The properties have been developed into the Ingleside Library or a mixed-use development. Finally, Caffe D’Melanio at 1314 Ocean Ave. is now Ocean Ale House.

Picking the businesses wasn’t fully planned and some came about at random, Martin said, though he did consider visual interest as one factor. Unlike street photography, he needed to find establishments that were interested in participating, giving him permission to take photos.

“I think a lot of photographers are driven by curiosity; they want to see how things change,” Martin said. “I do a lot of little projects and this was another project to do and I felt it was a time to go back and do it now because the development of Ocean Avenue seems to run in economic cycles and I think a lot of business has picked up since Covid and I thought it was time to see.”

Martin said he may do another comparison in about five to 10 years, but until then, he wants to emphasize the reality these small business owners face.

“Even over many years, things change, people come and go, businesses come and go, but people still want to realize the so-called American Dream,” Martin said. “It's still there, that the immigrant experience is still quite alive on Ocean Avenue.”