"People were really happy at the opening," said Touma. "It's been really important for everybody."

"It all has to change depending on the situation, nothing is certain. It all depends on which direction they are shooting in, whether we can get in touch with people to advertise."

Touma said that many of his traditional audience had fled Syria, and instead many of the people coming to the festival had never been to a gallery or been interested in photography before.

In March, he also launched a peace project called Art Camping in response to the war, which has been dividing the country since protests against Al-Assad began in March 2011.

It is a series of art, music and photography workshops, often aimed at refugees or people who have never been interested in art before.

"People talk about the refugees in Jordan or Lebanon, but most refugees are inside the city," said Touma. "All around Aleppo is war and more and more people are coming to the center."

"The center is so crowded, you can't imagine how many people are living in the city."

"When people do programs for refugees, they give them food and medicine, but not culture or anything to keep them busy.

"It's very important to everybody that there's heart in society still alive and that they still have some hope.

"These are people who have had to leave their homes, who have never been to a gallery before and now they are turning up to do art and see art.

"Now about 500 people have taken part in Art Camping. Not altogether, but different people have done different workshops."

Follow the Inside the Middle East team on Twitter: Presenter Rima Maktabi: @rimamaktabi, producer Jon Jensen: @jonjensen, producer Schams Elwazer: @SchamsCNN, writer Catriona Davies: @catrionadavies and digital producer Mairi Mackay: @mairicnn.