SOLVED. YA Fantasy: Evil headmaster with a dangerous camera, dimension travelling chest, and talking animals

[Mitchell Rasmussen]

Title: maybe has a camera or something related to it in the title
Plot: A boy gets sent to a boarding school. He makes friends with of the kids there. The principal or head master has a camera that does something to who ever is getting photographed. Then a talking cat meets up with the boy and trains him. At some point there's a introduction of a chest that takes the group to a alternate dimension where there's lot of talking animals. The animals are looking for a baby that was left in a chest and transported to earth. The head master is looking for that child as well, so he can take a photo.

Published: Like 1990 - 2006

Book cover: a dark background with the old camera in the center-ish and the characters on the edges. The cat maybe a part of it.

[Rainbowheart]

Mitchell, I noticed this is in the Solved folder.

Was Under the Cat's Eye your book?