I live every day with the notion that "color" is a creation of the mind, an interpretation of sensory signals, and not actual reality. (Though generally a reasonably close interpretation; if it were not, we'd have a hard time moving around in the world!). The interesting thing is that the colors I see are different, but different in a measurable and consistent way. But this includes, really, "black" and "white" as well. And remember that b&w prints are rarely perfectly neutral monochrome. When you talk about "warm" or "cold" tone, or toning, or many other types of manipulation, you are talking about the use of color. A completely neutral gray print would look even duller than printers' ink. It may be that this is color you are adding to your photo, rather than color used to represent what was seen, but still. You can't completely get away from color. B&W is not more "universal" in that sense. Technically, for me, it is easier to work with. That's all. I've seen many photos I've liked and thought were good in color, and many in b&w; the empirical evidence suggests that arguing over which has more artistic value is pretentious blah-blah of no value.
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