Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1972 Zabrze, Poland

Year of Migration to the UK: 2008

Other name/s: Elżbieta Piekacz

Biography

Photographer, filmmaker, and actress, Mela Hilleard was born as Elżbieta Piekacz on 1 July 1972 in Zabrze, in the Silesian region of Poland. Her family, originally from Lviv, had been forcibly resettled after the Second World War, when the city became part of Ukraine, and she grew up with a strong sense of displacement and longing for a lost homeland. Initially drawn to the theatre, she trained at the Wrocław Theatre Academy, graduating from the Faculty of Puppetry in 1995, and between 2001 and 2002 she studied at the Institute of Developing Countries at the University of Warsaw. She worked extensively as a stage actress in Poland, performing with Teatr Nowy in Łódź, and with Teatr Dramatyczny, Teatr Narodowy, Scena Prezentacje, and Teatr Na Woli in Warsaw. Alongside her theatre career, she took leading roles in television, film, and radio dramas. Her screen work included memorable lead roles as Agnieszka in The Child (1999) and as Ewa in Double Portrait (2000), for which she received the Best Actress Award at the 20th International Koszalin Debut Film Festival and for which she was also co-writer and camera operator.

After her early success as an actress, Hilleard expanded her creative practice to include photography and film. She studied photography at the European Academy of Photography in Warsaw (2006–8). In 2008 she immigrated to England to study filmmaking, graduating from the London Film School in 2017. Her work across both mediums is rooted in a poetic sensibility, favouring intuition and atmosphere over convention. She is drawn to subjects with unspoken histories and imperfections, with the aim of creating a sense of eternity via the usage of light that seems as though emanating from a person, a place, or a memory. Her photographic projects range from intimate portraiture to conceptual explorations of identity, memory, and belonging. Her series ICONS was featured in the exhibition Inside/Outside and All in Between at the Migration Museum (2025) and on the Migration Museum’s website, while Windows and Memories were exhibited at the Pittenweem Arts Festival in Scotland. Her work has been shown internationally, including at Galerie Roi Doré in Paris, the International Photo Festival in Ghar al Melah, Tunisia, and at the Saatchi Gallery, London.

As a filmmaker, Piekacz’s projects often blend documentary and lyrical elements, exploring migration, displacement, and the passage of time. Her graduation film, At Dawn the Flowers Open the Gate of Paradise (2017), premiered at the 72nd Edinburgh International Film Festival and received awards for Best UK Experimental Short and Best Director. Other notable works include Tango Shoes (2015), Embrace (2015), and And You Sleep... (2016), as well as collaborations as cinematographer or camera operator on independent productions. She is currently developing From Life, a film inspired by the life and work of pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, following her recent exhibition, At the Dining Room with Julia Margaret Cameron: Frames of Time at the Dimbola Museum on the Isle of Wight. Her documentary HOME (2024), which she wrote, directed, shot, and produced, premiered at the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival at London’s ICA, winning Best Feature Film and receiving a special screening at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw. Its has since been shown internationally, in France, Poland, and across the UK.

In addition to her personal projects, Piekacz has worked as a freelance photographer with for a range of UK institutions, including the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Birds Eye View, British Library, Migration Museum, Curzon, Polish Cultural Institute, and the Polish Film Institute. Her photographs have been widely published in outlets such as Silvershotz, PhotoArt, Eyemazing, Photoicon, Zoom, the British Journal of Photography, State/f22, Le Journal de la Photographie, The Guardian, Gazeta Wyborcza, and National Geographic. Between 2002 and 2006, Piekacz undertook a film and photography voyage through South-East Asia, crossing Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Tibet, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. Mela Hileard lives and works in London. Her works are not currently held in UK public collections.

Related organisations

Birds Eye View (freelance photographer)
British Library (freelance photographer )
Curzon (freelance photographer)
Institute of Contemporary Arts (freelance photographer )
London Film School (student)
Migration Museum (freelance photographer )
Polish Cultural Institute (freelance photographer )
Polish Film Institute (freelance photographer)

Selected exhibitions

Inside Outside and all in-between, Migration Museum, London (2025)
At the Dining Room with Julia Margaret Cameron (solo exhibition), Dimbola Museum & Galleries, Freshwater, Isle of Wight (2024)
Photographie Polonaise a Paris et dans le monde (group show), Galerie Roi Doré, Paris (2012)
Windows and Memories (two photography projects), Pitenweem Arts Festival, Pitenweem, Scotland (2012)
Art of Giving (group show and competition), Saatchi Gallery, London (2010)
Group show, Polish Cultural Institute, London (2009)
International Photo Festival (group show), Ghar al Melah, Tunisia (2008)
Prix de la Photographie (group show), Paris (2008)
Solo exhibition, Batory Foundation, Warsaw, Poland (2007)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Mela Hilleard]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Mela Hilleard photographer