Self-assembled monolayers of the photosynthetic oxygen evolving complex have been prepared and used for x-ray standing wave fluorescence studies in grazing incidence and using layers synthetic microstructures substrates and for polarized x-ray absorption measurements. The XSW studies provide direct information about the axial (perpendicular to the membrane) distribution of heavy atoms in the membrane, while polarized XAS studies provides angle resolved radial structure information with smaller angular heterogeneity than is obtained for dried multilayers.