 Complex Grassmannian as orthogonal projections

The complex Grassmannian of $k$-planes in ${\mathbb{C}}^n$ identifies with the displayed Hermitian orthogonal projection matrices. A plane is recovered as the image of its projection. Near a plane $E$, a neighboring plane is the graph of a complex linear map $Z:E\to E^{\perp }$. Its projection is $W(W^{\ast }W{)}^{-1}{W}^{\ast }$ with $W=(I,Z{)}^T$. The unitary group acts transitively by conjugation, and its tangent directions are $[A,P]$ with $A^{\ast }=-A$.