How to access Images from cq

HI, 

I have to perform search on cq folder for images and display matched images to the user.

I write code in .net c#, and I use to get the contents from the folder using path like

http://localhost:port/content/customers.xml 

using this I access all the images in a particular folder named customers  .

Later, I use some xpath kind of stuff to search the xml file , 

But, this takes a lot of time, 

I am looking for alternative ways. 

Is it possible to query cq directly from asp.net ?

Is it possilbe to send request like http://localhost:port/content/customers.xml?query to filter the images

please suggest other ways to boost performance