black and white and red all over

Most of the quotes in Meg's post resonate with me on some level.   Yet, for me, it's difficult to compare color photography with black and white.  They are so inherently different for me.  With black and white, there is the absolute simplicity of two extremes with a infinite universe of tonality in between.  It's almost poetic for me---black and white film photography.  Film is a big part of it as well.  I haven't experienced a lot of digital black and white, but the few times I "switched color off"on my camera it felt odd and uncomfortably out of place.  Black and white is tactile.  Textures, surfaces, highlights---awareness is heightened in black and white.  Color can be very distracting or overwhelming.  I enjoy color photographs that stick to a narrow range of colors; not absolutely so, but generally.  Some of these quotes seem a little melodramatic to me.  I don't know anything about photographing somebody's soul, but I would definitely say that a black and white photograph has a much better chance of being truly engaging than a color one.  At the same time, though, I'm pretty new to color photos.  I guess I shouldn't knock it till I've tried it.  The last quote that Meg posted really spoke to me in regards to the issue of color photography.  Black and white is so pared down that it becomes pretty easy to make a picture be about only one thing---or nothing at all.  Colors are distracting and misleading.  I think it's a real challenge to get past all that and just have the color be there as part of the picture or even as a nonissue.