Why there is "Magic" in B&W?

[Kayaker72]

Maybe a bit odd, but this question made me think of those restaurants where you dine in the dark. Supposedly depriving you of one of your senses makes you focus more on your other senses which ends up accentuating the smell and flavor of the food.

Whatever. I have never done it myself. But the general concept of addition by subtraction may still apply.

To me, the answer is simple. You start with your basic image with full color. Then there are any number of steps that a photographer can take to emphasize their vision for the image. You can saturate colors, use warm color temps, cool color temps, you can sharpen, accentuate a single color, add vignetting, or modify contrast. You can also convert to B&W. All of these steps are toward an artistic vision rather than a simple picture, something we see in everyday life.

B&W, at least the renderings I like, do at least two things:

1. Makes you focus on the contrast or tonality within an image. With a color image you have to worry about the tonal gradient of each color, not just B&W.
2. I think the net effect is that this simplifies an image. Sometimes you can get lost in or distracted by all the color. B&W feels more simple, clear, sometimes more stark, or perhaps a little more true. But it does have a feeling too it.

I think the first bullet is what is technically going on, but the second step, if you are looking for "magic," may be the source.