Importance of Color

Color can help to facilitate and fulfil some very basic human needs. It can: identify and specify necessary objects (animal, vegetable or mineral) for survival and/or enjoyment; stimulate and work synergistically with all the senses – sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch; mark territory and manage personal space; symbolize abstract concepts and thoughts; recall another time or space /create a mnemonic sensation); express fantasy and wish-fulfilment; create illusions and ambience; emphasize or camouflage figures or objects; enhance self-image and personal esteem; produce an aesthetic response. Most important, the use and arrangement of color enable us to create beauty and harmony and express our personal taste, by doing so, provide us with a sense of accomplishment.
Pantone Book of Color, Abrams, 1990

…. everything looks better
in black and white….
in kodachrome, Paul Simon, 1973

trop de couleur distrait le spectateur….
Jacques Tati

When we speak of being “colour blind” we call it a defect. But there could easily be other different capacities, none of which are manifestly better or worse than others – and we should also remember that a person could spend his entire life without ever noticing that he is colour blind until some special event shows this to be the case.

In a film, as in a photograph, although the face and hair seem grey, they seem quite natural. on the other hand, in a film, the food on a plate often seems grey and therefore, quite unappetising.
-Ludwig Wittgenstein