  In this paper, we study how simple linear projections of some projective
varieties behave when the projection center runs through the ambient space.
More precisely, let $X \subset \P^r$ be a projective variety satisfying
Green-Lazarsfeld's property $N_p$ for some $p \geq 2$, $q \in \P^r$ a closed
point outside of $X$, and $X_q := \pi_q (X) \subset \P^{r-1}$ the projected
image of $X$ from $q$. First, it is shown that the secant locus $\Sigma_q (X)$
of $X$ with respect to $q$, i.e. the set of all points on $X$ spanning secant
lines passing through $q$, is either empty or a quadric in a subspace of
$\P^r$. This implies that the finite morphism $\pi_q : X \to X_q$ is
birational. Our main result is that cohomological and local properties of $X_q$
are precisely determined by $\Sigma_q (X)$. To complete this result, the next
step should be to classify all possible secant loci and to decompose the
ambient space via the classification of secant loci. We obtain such a
decomposition for Veronese embeddings and Segre embeddings. Also as an
application of the main result, we study cohomological properties of low degree
varieties.
