Hundreds turn up to bid farewell to Turkish photographer Ara Güler

Hundreds of people turned up Saturday to bid their final farewell to Ara Güler, an acclaimed Turkish journalist and photographer known as "the Eye of Istanbul" for his iconic black-and-white pictures of Istanbul and its residents, who died at the age of 90 late Wednesday.

Mourners started pouring in to Galatasaray Square, where the ceremony will be held, from the early hours of the morning.

The Florence Nightingale Hospital in Istanbul said that Güler died of heart and respiratory failure.

Güler, from Turkey's minority Armenian community, was born in Istanbul in 1928. In a career that spanned several decades, he worked for Magnum Photos, Paris Match and Germany's Stern among other organizations, interviewing and photographing politicians and artists, including Winston Churchill, Dali and Picasso.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Güler "one of the greatest names in the art of photography raised by Turkey."

Erdoğan said that "great artists continue to live through works they leave behind."