“There is only one real question. Where do we stand, with whom do we identify?” –Raymond Williams, 1973

The vantage, that is the position we occupy in relation to a subject or a site is critical to determining what we can see and how we see it. Each vantage suggests an angle of vision, and what emerges in the visual field contained by that angle of vision.  Our vantage shapes how we see the world.  When we see a building or an object from below, looking up, the angle of vision seems to diminish at the top, giving us an exaggerated—exploded—view of the object towering above: that is an ant’s eye view. Technically speaking, an ant’s eye view is a three-point perspective in which the viewer stands below the horizon line.  To share such a perspective also might mean sharing the point of view of those who occupy the lower echelons of society, the unprivileged and vulnerable.   

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Swati Chattopadhyay