query_posts(array(
      array('post'), 'tax_query' => array(array( 'taxonomy' => 'post_format',
                               'field' => 'slug',
                               'terms' => array('post-format-image'))),
      'cat' => '-173',
      'post_status' => 'publish')
  );'

// This takes your current query, that will have the filtering part added to.
$query_string = array(
      'post_type' => 'post',
      'tax_query' => array(array( 'taxonomy' => 'post_format',
                               'field' => 'slug',
                               'terms' => array('post-format-image'))),
      'cat' => '-173',
      'post_status' => 'publish');

// Create a new filtering function that will add our where clause to the query
function filter_where( $where = '' ) {
    // posts in the last 30 days
    $where .= " AND post_date > '" . date('Y-m-d', strtotime('-30 days')) . "'";
    return $where;
}

add_filter( 'posts_where', 'filter_where' );
$query = new WP_Query( $query_string );
remove_filter( 'posts_where', 'filter_where' );

function wpse52070_filter_where( $where = '' , $query) {
       if( $query->is_main_query() && is_page( 'foobar' ) ){
          // posts in the last 30 days
          $where .= " AND post_date > '" . date('Y-m-d', strtotime('-30 days')) . "'";
       }

        return $where;
    }

    add_filter( 'posts_where', 'wpse52070_filter_where' );

$query_string = array(
      'post_type' => 'post',
      'date_query' => array(
        'after' => '2012-04-01'
      ),
      'tax_query' => array(array( 'taxonomy' => 'post_format',
                               'field' => 'slug',
                               'terms' => array('post-format-image'))),
      'cat' => '-173',
      'post_status' => 'publish');