High specific surface area transparent and conducting frameworks, fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD), were used as scaffolds for fabrication of equally high area, ALD-formed hematite structures for photo-oxidation of water to dioxygen. The frameworks offer high transparency to visible light and robust conductivity under harsh annealing and oxidizing conditions. Furthermore, they also make possible the spatially distributed collection of photocurrent from ultrathin coatings of hematite layers, enabling the formation of photoanodes featuring both large optical extinction and a hematite layer thickness nearly commensurate with the hole-collection distance. The distributed-current-collection approach increases the efficiency of water oxidation with hematite (by about a factor of 3 compared with an optimized flat electrode), is highly adaptable to future advances in thin film technology, and is further applicable to a multitude of nanostructures and optoelectronic applications that require ultrathin films without sacrificing optical thickness.