Black and White

Black and White, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, and hyphenated black-and-white when used as an adjective, is any of several monochrome forms in visual arts.

Black-and-white images are not usually starkly contrasted black and white. They combine black and white in a continuum producing a range of shades of gray. Further, many monochrome prints in still photography, especially those produced earlier in its development, were in sepia (mainly for archival stability), which yielded richer, subtler shading than reproductions in plain black-and-white.

Denk niet zwart-wit
Maar in de kleur van je hart 
-
Don't think black and white,
But in the colour of your heart

-

Denke nicht schwarz und weiß,

Sondern in der Farbe deines Herzens
-
Nie myśl, że czarno-biały,
Ale w kolorze twojego serca
-
Ne pense pas en noir et blanc,
Mais de la couleur de votre coeur

Theme at T.R.A.C.S Saturday June 30th

You may guess what theme we have......................

Think the impossible as long as it's in black and white.

Should I gather all the pieces

To the puzzle of my life

Should I let bygones be bygones

Take what's left and make it right

Why not take it at face value

See the picture black and white

My night vision's kind of blurry

But I'll try

Get out of my way, get out of my way

From the beginning to the now

We done come a long way

(I see the world in black and white)

I just wanna get higher (higher)

Set the city on fire (fire)

Body all on my back

Won't have it no other way

(Won't have it no other way)

Should I savor every moment

Like we're runnin' out of time

Should I let bygones be bygones

Just to ease each other's minds

Why not take it at face value

See the picture black and white

My night vision's kind of blurry

But I'll try

Get out of my way, get out of my way (get out of my way)

(I see the world in black and white)

From the beginning to the now (beginning to the now)

We done come a long way (come a long way)

I just wanna get higher (higher)

Set the city on fire (fire)

Body all on my back

Won't have it no other way

(Won't have it no other way)

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

I see the world in black and white

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

I see the world in black and white

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

I see the world in black and white

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

I see the world in black and white

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Oh ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

It don't matter if you're black or white

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

BLACK

Black is the darkest color, the result of the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, literally a color without hue, like white (its opposite) and gray. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness, while white represents light.

Black ink is the most common color used for printing books, newspapers and documents, because it has the highest contrast with white paper and is the easiest to read. For the same reason, black text on a white screen is the most common format used on computer screens.

In color printing it is used along with the subtractive primaries cyan, yellow, and magenta, in order to help produce the darkest shades.

Black and white have often been used to describe opposites; particularly truth and ignorance, good and evil, the "Dark Ages" versus Age of Enlightenment. Since the Middle Ages black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for this reason is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates.

Black was one of the first colors used by artists in neolithic cave paintings. In the 14th century, it began to be worn by royalty, the clergy, judges and government officials in much of Europe. It became the color worn by English romantic poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century.

In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches and magic. According to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, evil, and elegance.

Etymology

The word black comes from Old English blæc ("black, dark", also, "ink"), from Proto-Germanic *blakkaz ("burned"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhleg- ("to burn, gleam, shine, flash"), from base *bhel- ("to shine"), related to Old Saxon blak ("ink"), Old High German blach ("black"), Old Norse blakkr ("dark"), Dutch blaken ("to burn"), and Swedish bläck ("ink"). More distant cognates include Latin flagrare ("to blaze, glow, burn"), and Ancient Greek phlegein ("to burn, scorch").

The Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different colors, if they had the same intensity. Kuanos' could mean both dark blue and black.

The Ancient Romans had two words for black: ater was a flat, dull black, while niger was a brilliant, saturated black. Ater has vanished from the vocabulary, but niger was the source of the country name Nigeria the English word Negro and the word for "black" in most modern Romance languages (French: noir; Spanish and Portuguese: negro; Italian: nero ).

Old High German also had two words for black: swartz for dull black and blach for a luminous black. These are parallelled in Middle English by the terms swart for dull black and blaek for luminous black. Swart still survives as the word swarthy, while blaek became the modern English black.

In heraldry, the word used for the black color is sable, named for the black fur of the sable, an animal.