One reason I appreciate monochrome (black and white) images is for their resonance with written text. When I write, my page is blank white; black text stands in sharp contrast. Text is only visible due to this extreme contrast.
But also, text is only readable because of its form and structure, and the relationships between individual symbols.
This phenomenon is the same in monochrome images. Form and structure supersede color; relationships between elements of the composition, between subject and objects, between foreground and background, are readable as dichotomy.
This is not to dismiss color images as a less worthy medium of communication, as a subordinate form of art. Not at all. Some compositions absolutely demand color to be “readable.”
But in my own personal work, monochrome enables me, and my subjects, to communicate a message that accentuates form, manifests dichotomy, and solicits emotion.