Dominion Camera, an institution in the City of Falls Church’s downtown since 1971, will be shutting down after 53 years.

In 1969 Tony Socarras founded Dominion Camera on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington. Two years later, allured by the great people he met who lived in the City of Falls Church, he had the opportunity to move his store to the place where Porter Photo Studio was founded years before.

Dominion Camera moved to the City of Falls Church in May of 1971 and has been a staple in the City since, servicing the Washington D.C. metro area photographic community at 112 West Broad Street for over 53 years.

In 2014, at 85, Tony Socarras retired and sold the store to Gary Henry and Mohsen Jalali. While Mohsen Jalali worked mostly at his other store Ace Photo in Ashburn, Gary Henry along with a great staff has been at the store every day working with customers, selling and buying cameras and accessories, solving problems and providing services like film developing, printing and a lot more. Tony Socarras told Gary before he passed away, in June of 2022 that his passion was to always help customers and preserve their memories with photography for the current and future generations. Gary and his staff worked hard to carry on his vision.

In March of 2024 Mohsen informed Gary and the staff that he no longer wanted to be responsible for a second store and he was going to focus solely on his store in Ashburn, Va. This action forced Dominion Camera to set a date to close at the end of its current lease.

After several failed attempts to sell the business the final day of September 7, 2024 is now set for the store’s closing.

Saying goodbye on that date will be Martin Brotsky, Lab Manager for 22 years and Robert MacGregor, Store Manager for 14 years.